It's Those Rainy Days
by ayslio
Summary: A series of drabbles speaking of Sonic's and Shadow's friendship and interactions. Mostly.
1. 001 - It's Those Rainy Days

**_06.06.18: Removed extra._**

 ** _Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog._**

 **Guest Reviews are only responded at the bottom  
** **All other user reviews will be directly responded UwU**

* * *

 **It's Those Rainy Days**

Wind chimes tinkled in the quiet evening. Cars rustling along the asphalt pavement, splashing a sprinkle of water drops on the ground. A telephone ringing in the foreground. Someone running the water faucet. Rain pattered quietly, reducing from a rainstorm to a drizzle. Gray whipped clouds left a soft fog, heavy feeling in the surrounding places.

Silence captured the rainy world.

Shadow wasn't the type to sit broodily by the window. Hell, Rouge gave him a concerned look when she found him staring into the void of rain, drops leaving a trail of water down the window. With that, the pale-bat left their shared apartment, going to her workplace a few floors below. The ebony hedgehog left no twitch of emotion as the door shut quietly.

He wasn't the type of hedgehog to write either.

All remained inside, it wouldn't leak, every emotion was constrained to the most little as possible. Writing was...quite tricky for the hedgehog. Shadow would often look at his work, an outline for a made-up story, just to type down a few paragraphs before quitting for the day. His motivation didn't come quickly as it did for other activities. It would take at least an hour before he would get into the mood. Writing is a pain in the ass, even when everything is entirely constructed, it's the actual writing of the characters, the dialogue, the action he had to put in. Shadow felt it would be better if he became a writer for the synopsis for different types of media. But he worked at GUN. His job is to write accurate statements and jot down every little detail of information on his missions. There's no room for creativity.

Writing was Shadow's haven. It's those days where he wished he didn't have the talent to craft stories.

Knock knock.

Came the door.

How are you?

A cobalt hedgehog kicked down the door with his red and white, yellow buckled shoes.

"Yo Shads! I didn't speed all this way to lift you out of your miseries. You can thank Rouge for that later." The blue blur winked, before plopping himself onto his couch. Damn bat.

The ebony hedgehog let out a sigh, his forehead creasing into an unmistakable emotion: annoyance.

"Faker I don't need your imbecile sunshine and happiness here," he growled, causing the devil speedster to stand up.

"Oh boo. I'm sorry you stuck your head in the wrong place today." It resulted in a book thrown at the blue hedgehog's head. He only smirked, amused to get under the ebony skin. Or fur, Whichever is more suitable for their likings.

Sonic took a sweeping gaze at the living room. Neat. Organized. Everything to perfection, clear of dust, and other un-necessities. "Oh Shadow. What can I do for you?"

The ebony's only reply was a twitch of his triangular ear.

"Sure sure." Sonic plopped himself into Shadow's writing chair, oblivious to Shadow's hackles rising. Him. Sitting at his desk. That is a no-no. Definite emergency. The black red-striped hedgehog stormed over to Sonic and ripped him out of the seat. The blue blur let out a pained noise as he was wrenched by the wrists. Shadow then sat down, quickly closing all notebooks, shoving papers inside, and pencils back into their drawers.

"Shads you didn't have to do that." Sonic groaned, rubbing his wrists tentatively.

"Don't call me that Faker."

"I call you whatever I feel like calling you."

More grumbles and sighs escaped the ebony's lips, as he sat up straight, crossing his arms. Sonic looked up at him, a light smirk painting his face. Chaos, I wish he wasn't here right now.

"Look. I don't want you here right now. Just go." Put a leg over the other, spinning the chair around, facing his desk. Arms uncrossed. Rain continued to fall steadily outside.

"C'mon, please—"

Shadow ignored him. He flipped open a notebook, not caring if the speedy blue decided to peek over and see it. He just needed to write. Fill the pages away with endless words, a plot that stretches to the horizon, anything his imagination called for. The nostalgia packed deep away into his bio-engineered bones. Oh, he wished to write the action and gore. But no.

Shadow is just a mere emotional writer with nothing in between that resembles the plot and action.

 _The more a pianist pours their emotions and hits the keyboard for all the world to hear, the more pain they begin to feel for themselves. The feelings droned on and silently, begging for the emotions to be out and to be heard, but locked away to what is called music. Some express it that one particular way._

 _A writer can pour their emotional thoughts and feelings, contrasting it with different characters and a tweak of the plot from their own personal imagination. Or it merely is they decide to take the experiment with research and through observing the world with their own eyes._

 _An artist can slash the canvas with their paintbrush, pouring their heart and passions into the eyes of the future. Or through a different prescriptive, seeing it is their job, their soul, a critic striving to make them better or doom for all._

A drumming sound brought Shadow out of his focus. In the corners of his peripheral vision, the ebony hedgehog noticed Sonic had reduced to sitting on his couch and staring at him. Watching him write. The furious scribbles of the pencil are anything both heard, besides the rain and light thunder.

"So that's what you do on these days? Write?" The blue blur shattered the ever-lasting silence.

"What do you do Faker?"

The room dropped and fell away.

Sonic laughed. Just laughed. Threw his head to the rainy sky and laughed. The dark hedgehog merely scowled at him. "Really?" the blue speedster was reduced to fits of coughing, wiping away the tears. "All these years and you don't know what I do on those rainy days? And here I am, sitting in your apartment, never knowing that you wrote a world full of your fantasies and imagination."

Shadow didn't know how to respond. All those years spending and training at GUN, he was sure to deliver a quick, witted response. He's now at a loss for words.

"Did I render you mute?"

"Shut up."

Sonic shook his head, muttering a sigh of words Shadow couldn't quite catch. He stood up and strode over to his desk. "Let me write something." He took the pencil out of Shadow's gloved hand.

 _I wanna know you. I want to see you. But yet, I can't. You are fading far far away. Ha! What is someone so apathetic like me, writing in here something like this. It's probably the dark red-striped hedgehog sitting here right now. I thought I knew a bit more. Those melodramatic scenes he probably writes? It could be the cries from the past. The scenery that he writes so profoundly, cutting like a knife into the imagination that it's like a photograph reborn? Every word flows from the tips of his fingers to the ink and graphite onto the paper below. I only read three paragraphs. How am I supposed to know?_

 _There's just so much more lying underneath._

 _Maybe those three...types of professions. It takes pain. Dedication. Determination. A song sung vocal cover can churn the meaning of the lyrics to something that resonates more powerfully within the singer. And maybe I don't understand because I'm a hero living a free-care life._

The blue blur dropped the pencil on the notebook, shuffling back to his seat on the couch. He twiddled with a fragment of wood.

A ghost of a smile almost slipped onto the ebony's face, but he forced it down. A sorrowful song sang into his mechanical heart. A blink. Shadow picked up the pencil and continued from where Sonic left off. And then he was speaking out loud.

 _The bittersweet summer smell in the air. The trees drifting lazily in the breeze, vibrant green leaving a lovely feel of nostalgia and happiness, the children never in their misery, but through their pure care-free innocence. There goes, the hours sitting in a darkened room, filling out the stoic, statements and clear information through the questions and notepads. The forms endlessly stacking up, leaving no freedom._

 _An exaggeration of some sort._

 _I pretended, getting used to sitting down and looking at the white flowers. In the evening, where they would glow underneath the moon._

 _It's a dream._

 _A dream of parallel happiness._

 _It's a dream._

 _A place where I can never escape._

 _It's a dream._

 _Summer came and gone._

 _I'm not good at saying good-byes. This heart thrives nothing but emptiness. I don't want to remember, the face of pain and suffering. I was created this way, who could say no, to rejecting a humble life when slaughtering others. Who would want to keep it all in, draining away life, happiness, leaving a subtle empty feeling behind. Who would want that? Not the innocents. Not those who breathed and protected the presence of others._

This is just dramatic. A pitiful thing to read.

 _Through the blurs of good-bye, there was only a lack of sorrow._

 _As the whole world is washed ashore. Mobians grumbling about, some wasting their hours away watching television, others having their faces pressed against the cold, foggy window._

Someday I'll learn how to say good-bye.

The second Shadow finished writing, both stared blankly at the written paragraphs and sentences embedded into the paper. The ebony hedgehog's face lacked an expression of emotion. Sonic mused for a bit.

People say that someone's eyes are always a window to another world. But is it really? What's with the meaning of eyes. Everyone tends to focus else where than the face, a quick brush and then goes to the curves and the shape of the body. Eyes really don't tell everything. Others are uncomfortable looking at one's face. Most are. Sonic didn't know why writers, and artists, tend to fantasize the eyes as if they are another world. Sure, they seem to realm the many hidden deep meanings behind...but he often never stared into another's named.

"That's pretty deep."

Shadow grunted. "Damn it." He quickly snapped the notebook shut. "Out you go Faker. Out."

* * *

Just like that the cobalt hedgehog is kicked out of his home, and Shadow was tended to the falling darkness all around. The only light source that was on was his lamp desk. The ebony hedgehog flipped over to the earlier writing session he had with Faker.

He's a decent writer alright. Thoughtful, per too so.

Shadow shook his head and tapped the fountain pen thoughtfully on his chin. Evening had come, draping the world with a blanket filled with a haze of clouds and the dying of rain. Stars shone, one by one in the darkness. Lights flickered on, emulating a yellow, blue, white haze throughout the neighborhood. Rouge would be back from her shift from G.U.N., and probably downstairs tending to customers.

The ebony male shut off his lamp and opened the blinds.

The whole neighborhood seemed so alive. Up ahead, he could see Station Square, alight with a warm atmosphere. Rain really does have a special effect does it not? It can stain the ground whole, running down into gutters and sewer systems, yet, the aftermath contrasts of a beautiful crystal image. Crisp. Electronic billboards could be seen from miles away, displaying advertisements. Shadow has been inside the heart of Station Square once. Everywhere were flashing billboards, lighting up the evening. Employees working overtime in tall buildings built to the atmosphere. Mobians and Overlanders alike were always trying to find a taxi, to take them home. He remembered, that if a light on a taxi is on, it means someone is occupying the cab. If not, then it means you can go ahead and hail for one.

The center was always filled with the disgusting, wrenching smog. Foods of all sorts wafted from restaurants, food stalls, and the occasional open cafe. Tourists of all will always visit. Ha. The city that never sleeps. How ironic. There used to be cities like that in the past too. But those have already died a long time ago after a great war unleashed of when the planet was once called Earth. Now, it's Mobius. Everyone can all blame the group of lab scientists, keeping track of a human, who slowly evolved into a mobian throughout the many years, merging and mixing DNA. Wow, thank natural selection and evolution.

Shadow wasn't created then yet, but it was taught in all schools, to the basics in primary, to secondary and extra education in colleges and universities. Maybe every mobian is still resembled a bit of human.

It's those days he wished he still wasn't here but far away.

She wouldn't like it. She would only want him to be here, because of her promise.

He will keep it.


	2. 002 - The Photographer

**_Warning: Suicide  
_**

* * *

 **The Photographer**

He wasn't very known in this world. He is the stranger, who walks in the day, taking photos, and observing the nature and beauty all around him. Spring was just into bloom, even though it was close to June. Out from a window of a building, he noticed a mother and son, walking together, hand in hand. The woman held her son protectively, close to her. The white, pure flowers stood out from the rest of this old town.

A squeak of the door, he left the room as it was. The creak creak of the stairs echoed mindlessly in his ears, traveling to his mind. He was a man of no tomorrow. Those timelines, erased. Days quickly flew by, he lost track of time. In maybe different realms of the universe, his life would have been better. Maybe he had a better life. Running around free, saving the world, out with his friends. Here. He had nothing. Nothing to accompany for. Nothing to do. Shadow didn't exist. He was just another person. A person who existed for the life of this planet.

The glint of the lens of a powerful, sleek camera in his gloved hands. The tiredness in his eyes, the lift of a faded smile. Another click, another photo saved. Sonic sat on the dirty sidewalk, watching the cars past by, vehicles to their destination.

 _"Do you know why on one side of this road, of this bridge, the fence is curved at the top, and here on this side, it's straight up?"_

 _Sonic glanced back and forth, hard. He squinted, and tried to find out why._

 _"It's really simple. Honestly, I would be deadpanning if you couldn't figure this one out."_

 _"I. I really don't know."_

 _"Really?"_

 _"Shadow I don't know."_

 _"Fine. Alright." The ebony looked at him. "That side of the fence is curved, because when people walk by, they won't be able to litter." He made a gesture with his white gloved hand, the tips of his fingers arching down, curving to a slight letter C. He used his other hand that represented as "litter" and made a bouncing move off. And that's when Sonic noticed the sidewalk._

 _"Holy crap I didn't notice the sidewalk there!"_

 _"That's why I told you to keep looking back and forth Sonic."_

 _"I didn't notice the sidewalk!" The blue blur exasperated. "If I did, I would figured out why the fence is curved..."_

 _The dark hedgehog cut in. "The fence that is straight, is well, straight up because there's nobody walking back and forth there. There's no sidewalk."_

 _"Shadow I get it!"_

 _"Just like when you didn't understand when if two cars were running at forty miles per hour and they were to crash, what was the crash of the speed?"_

 _"I'm not some smart assed punk like you! I don't understand physics well. Jeez." Sonic crossed his arms, turning away._

 _Shadow snorted. "What's with the camera you carry around all the time?"_

 _"Things. I like photography."_

 _"You? Huh. I didn't expect."_

Every name, every face, were fuzzy from his mind. Everyday was just every hour and second he continued to exist in this nihility. The conversations he had, with strangers and close relatives, or friends, he can't remember them at all. The itch to write something, but just as it came, it faded away. Nothing ever seemed to stick inside his mind. Bits of his childhood memories continued to stay where they are, but they never seemed to last for long.

An old run-down gas station.

A park filled with flowers and trees, young mobians running about.

A piece of a crushed, dented, metal soda can.

The blurs of blocked out faces and memories.

The memories threatened to spill. He didn't need them. He didn't need these feelings, these dreams. Something he wanted to erase, but he can never will. He was sorry. He wanted to see them again. He wondered why he is still here. He didn't care. He'll leave. It repeated over and over in his mind. Those days he felt so well, only to be crushed by being dragged back and over again.

The blue hedgehog drooped, letting the camera fall at his chest level, the strap around it preventing it from shattering on the ground. He looked at his hands. What is he doing here? Be nice. Smile. Easy easy. At home he lies in bed. He attempts to fix things inside his house, all by himself, since he felt like he is forced to. Those rigid rules were drilled into his mind.

He wants to see people smiling, but he can't. He lost the only one, that slipped out of his hands. Everyone left, everyone left, he didn't want it to happen, but it's the fatal slip up. That maybe a dream here, he remembered, he tried, he was by himself, he was born, he lived in a family, and then he left.

Those friends in his dreams, they were probably somewhere else. They don't exist.

The one with the two-tails?

He isn't sure why namesakes would talk to him.

What was his name again?

Oh it was…

…

T…

Talls?

Tails.

Okay.

He was a bright and young intelligent fox. Everyday whenever Sonic would wander down the busy streets near the laboratory, near G.U.N. headquarters, he would always spot the yellow white-furred fox busily typing away in a laptop. For some reason he would always catch the hedgehog and pull him into a conversation.

Sonic would always nod, toss in a few words here and there, and try to make sense and most of the conversation they had.

 _"_ _Hey Sonic!"_

 _He nodded._

 _"How are you?"_

 _"I'm good. How about you?"_

 _"Fine and dandy. Just finished up an essay." The fox flashed him a bright smile. "There's a lot going on, like having to finish building a prototype of this new chip and then submitting it to the Commander. It's not like I'm working at a business company!" He laughed. "What are you doing?"_

 _"Just taking photos. Like all the usual."_

 _"I'm curious why."_

 _Sonic sighed, feeling the weight on his neck. "I just wanted to. I like taking photos."_

 _Tails hesitated. "It's just...well. I kinda always see you off. You okay?"_

 _"What's wrong with me?"_

 _Tails shoved his gloved hands into his lab coat pocket, "I kinda. Like." Eyes flicked to the sky and the horizon above. "I recognize that anywhere. Just the features. Like nothing's really there, or worth it."_

 _"And why do you care?"_

 _He flinched. "It's not good to bottle up emotions you know. Find someone...to talk to maybe?"_

 _Sonic turned his gaze toward the ground. The two continued to walk._

 _"Sonic, have you ever been to High Gates?"_

 _"Why should I?"_

 _"It's. It's scary the first time. I can come with you if you want to. I just. I feel what you're going through. Maybe you don't want to talk about it, but every Friday, I would never see you there. I have a sharp attention on people you know. I just don't work at a laboratory for nothing. I do other, psychological stuff even if it doesn't seem like I am."_

 _"Huh. Thanks I guess."_

 _"Anytime. You seem pretty chill. Can we hang out more? More than just these casual conversations before I have to go back, like usual?"_

 _"Of course."_

Maybe that's why the hedgehog remembered Tails so vividly. He's just there. A fox who has a wonderful career and life ahead of him, carrying for an already given up hedgehog.

 _I wonder how you are doing today. Up and above?_

 _I'm sorry._

 **11.**

More hours. More days. More seconds. But they seemed to slip out of his grasp. He wanted to, wanted to remember the warm face he looked up to everyday. They aren't there, he feels himself falling and falling.

The hedgehog found himself, inside his empty bare room once again. He was printing out photos, many photos, he found himself writing a half-assed attempt of an essay, typing, quickly, then printing it out. He bundled the photos into separate folders, the sheen of the matte paper leaving him remember the many places he had traveled around Station Square once more. He was back at the computer again, typing another essay.

He left the apartment key under a potted plant. A particular someone will come by.

The cobalt hedgehog was at the G.U.N. headquarters. Eyes flicked onto him, gazes piercing into the depths of their soul.

"Mail for Tails. Miles Prower." He dropped a suitcase, filled with the folders and photos, to a security guard and walked away. The stranger had a mixture of confusion on his face, and he called for him, to come back. No matter. They will still deliver it to him.

The camera was back at his apartment. Shadow will come back. He'll see it. But it no longer mattered. He was sorry. But nothing could fix it. Sonic was sorry. He was sorry. He was tired.

Over and over.

He was at the cliff.

He wanted it to end this way.

Drop.

The sky shattered into a million stars.

 **1.**

the note wasn't there anymore.

 **2.**

Tails opened the suitcase and found the photos.

Can you hear me?

His death was silent, just as his body was found from a scientist who didn't see him in a week. But nobody came for the photographer. All that chased after him was a grieving project and two-tails.

Do you need help?

 _Yes._


	3. 003- i just can't forget

**Edit 01: 05.21.18. - Holy crap that was a lot of grammatical errors and punctation. Dear lord.**

 _If you keep seeing notifications from previous chapters, it means I either updated it with a better version, or found grammatical mistakes and decided to fix it._

 _Can you figure out how this is written? :) It jumps around a lot._

 _This is an aftermath of **The Photographer**. It's not highly recommended that you have to read it._

* * *

 **i just can't forget**

Shock. Those "ifs" just floating around in his head.

Maybe if Tails tried harder, maybe Sonic wouldn't have jumped. All that's left was a suitcase filled with photographs and a silent Shadow. Tails wondered what happened between the both of them, to cause Sonic to finally lose it.

Or maybe it was that he lost it because he can no longer contain his emotions and his mind anymore. Being underwater was shutting out all the world's sound and looking up above, was to see bliss and a melancholy dream.

Days continue to flee, and yet, the fox still has no clue on the deceased hedgehog's reason. Summer came and went away, just as fall did, and grabbed the leaves from the tired branches of the prideful oaks. He would miss the azure hedgehog wandering on the same street every day, always standing under the tree, looking into his camera and waiting for the perfect snapshot.

It's winter, and Tails was bundled up in a coat. He adjusted his glasses a-tip his nose and cracked open the suitcase again. Colleagues exchanged concerned glances at each other. It has been several months since Tails brought it into the cafe. The day after Sonic was gone. Now he's sitting there, trying to investigate what happened. Shadow wasn't open about it though. He tends to remain in the apartment he now shared with Rouge.

Now it's just a barren void of waiting something to be filled.

Tails went back up to Sonic's apartment the day after he died. He found a key under a potted plant at the entrance. Upon opening the door, there was a camera sitting at a sleek and polished desk. The same camera Tails always saw Sonic with.

He wondered why the blue hedgehog loved photography so much.

Endless days, plundering through the towns and cities, wandering from place to place; does he not have a home he can abide in?

Snow drifted gently outside, slowly coating Station Square with a layer of a white blanket in the coming tomorrow. Daylight was fading, it was only four in the afternoon and the sun lost itself below the horizon. The shadows of the gray clouds only indicated the darkening sky up and above. The world continued to go round, even after to this day.

Tails was still the cheery and optimistic mastermind, but he seemed a bit different to a degree. Sometimes he would drift off into the vast void until someone snapped him back on track. Tails was just on his way out when a familiar face showed up.

It was a surprise when Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform stepped into G.U.N.'s headquarters, briskly calling for Tails' attention. Everyone knew about the notorious, dark hedgehog, having escaped from Space Colony Ark and rampaging to destroy the world due to a small misunderstanding. The personal issues between him and the Commander, before he left at his own will.

The two-tailed fox was dragged from his room and into the loneliness of a familiar place he knew all so well a few months ago. They were back at Sonic's apartment.

Both sat at the empty desk. Tails placed the suitcase on it, and Shadow flicked his attention toward it. He didn't say a word.

The ebony hedgehog was fidgeting and playing with his fingers, a sight the fox never saw before.

"I have...something to say."

Memories and words drifted like a soft haze through the ebony's mind.

He can't focus. He feels clammy. Red eyes dropped to the ground, his hover shoes, Tails' namesakes, and outside the window. He's tired. Very tired. His Chaos Energy levels low. His vision flickered for a bit.

"And what is it about?" Tails asked softly.

"It's my fault." The ebony forced himself to sober up. "I was the reason he's..."

Tails looked out the window, following Shadow's fleeting gaze. "He loved this time of the year a lot doesn't he?"

"Before spring, Tails. It's when the whole world is drowned in white and snow, and then spring shoots itself from the ground and reaches toward the sky. It's why he loved photography. When he quit being a hero, and I had to take care of him. Something the Commander said, about losing his mind."

That caught the fox's attention. "I didn't know about that."

"He just wasn't himself."

Tails bit his lower lip. "I wondered what triggered the effect."

The ebony hedgehog hesitated. "I'm not sure. Maybe it was loss? Friend issues? I first found him when he was just wandering around, shivering in the rain. Didn't know he didn't had a place to live in. Just around the right time too, the Commander was getting fed up with him."

"Shadow." His eyes strayed toward the concerned fox's. "Why are you coming to me instead? Normally, you...well you keep things to yourself. You don't often speak of your problems."

The ebony hedgehog cut Tails off before he continued. "People change. Maybe if I asked why, changed a bit differently, maybe his thoughts wouldn't carry to where he is now. Another grave in the ground." He swallowed. "Generally, we aren't very close, and we only see each other every once in a while when I was still working at G.U.N. I'm not sure who else to reach out, about. I did everything I can to help...Sonic. Medical treatment, everything. Tails it's stressful. I lived with the thought of worrying every day if he's still going to be alive. Not walk out. And I fucked up. Terribly."

The hedgehog buried his head in his hands, controlling his spilling emotions. Him. Out of all people. Breaking down. Everything was too much to carry inside all the time. Even the strongest break away quietly and privately. It's a lesson everyone knows, but their ego and pride pushes them to the breaking point.

Tails was in a quiet shock. He assumed he knew more about the ebony hedgehog than he thought, but of course, that is not always the case.

Outside, a winter storm raged on. There were fewer civilians in the street. Lights blinked from red to green, then to yellow. Cars rode silently in the howling winds, a whiteout. Stragglers hurried to their safe destinations.

A candle glowed softly in the quiet apartment. A lavender scent warmed the atmosphere. Shadow was staring at the ceiling, all conversation deceased. Tails was attempting to boil water and pour it into mugs containing coffee beans, a stir of chocolate, and warm milk. After mixing the drink, the fox poured it out, steam rising from both mugs. He handed one to Shadow and tried to warm his fingers up in the coldness. It seems the heater didn't work.

Shadow rose to flick another wax candle and bring the room to light. He carried the suitcase full of photos and placed it on the ground. Both mugs went unattended as the two mobians spoke a feathery conversation. A voice filled with heaviness, another fluttering with concern.

"He loved this one."

"Of course Shadow."

"How do you know? Know Sonic?"

Tails blinked in surprise. "I well...you know. Met him on the same street, the same spot, same sidewalk every day. I decided to come down and greet him because he seemed...lonely."

"Lonely?"

"Yeah. He was always standing there, taking a photograph of a cafe right across the street." Tails pulled out a bundle of photos both mobians haven't investigated in yet. Upon unclipping the stack, Shadow held in a breath. It was the cafe he first found Sonic sitting by. Photo after photo, strangers would be on the other side, the occasional Shadow flitting across the images, vehicles blocking the main point of view, causing a sense of a world blur. There was a note attached to a photo. A photo of the ebony hedgehog smiling, a rare sight for any of the mobians. His face etched the features of happiness. It appeared someone else had taken the photo, for Sonic had his arm slung around the ebony's shoulders.

"Oh..." Tails stifled and turned to look at the ebony hedgehog reading the note.

And Shadow cried. Just as the winter storm howled its misery. Tails cautiously eased the tight grip on the note and began to read.

 _Hey, Shadow._

 _I'm not sure when you're coming back. It's really quiet without you. It's scary here. I hear voices all the time. Shadow I don't feel like the medication isn't working. When you quit working with the shady organization, I was happy. You're taking care of me. Especially when the Commander hasn't given up on me already. But you left again. It was always another mission. I thought you quit for good. I was wrong. You keep disappearing for some reason._

 _I don't know where you are._

 _There's still a lot of things here._

 _Ha!_

 _It's a cliché. Just another reality I'm living in, right?_

 _I've taken up photography for a reason._  
 _To get my mind off on a lot of stuff. You know what G.U.N. does. I'm a pacifist, not a horrible gruel person._

 _It was to capture the world's beauty one last time. For a two-tailed fox to look at, and for you, if he ever comes by you, to look at. I didn't get to hear you for the last time. It's okay._

 _Thank you._

 _I love you. Very much :)_

Tails crawled over and hugged Shadow. "He would...want to see you happy. Move on. You know...she wanted you that way too. Protect her world." Tails murmured. "Time heals. And if it doesn't, something else will heal..."

"I was just…was...busy...wish could see him...tried to help and tried to heal..." His shoulders shook underneath Tails' frame.

The two held each other for the rest of the evening.

* * *

Snow melted. Birds chirped. Another season faded away, since the note, since the photos. Tails was coming to visit Shadow and take a walk to his grave. The two-tailed fox quickly exited the building, waving goodbye to his partners, and briskly walked over to the cafe that Sonic loved. Shadow looked up from his stare at the ground, and the two mobians walked for a few miles. Rounding streets, hearing the city sounds, the blink of lights, cabs honking. They were then at the quieter side of the town. A cemetery lay, filled with lovingly carved headstones. The gates creaked silently, and both mobians stepped into the quietness of the field.

They walked over to the headstone where Sonic lay.

White flowers, faded pink, the occasional red breezed through the air. Shadow lay a bouquet of collected white flowers on the ground. "Thank you." the ebony whispered.

"I love you too."

* * *

 **Hawkfeather [Guest]** \- Oh gosh thank you :,^)! Oho, you never ever compare a rookie author against the greatest author [creator of Harry Potter series] (even though I don't know much about it, I heard it's amazing the way they wrote it). Thank you very much though! I'm just a hobbyist writer so I don't think you'll see my pen name floating around in shelves. Crafting words, throwing in figurative language and such brings the magic! I've loved to tied strings around the English language and make sure that it goes _my_ way (not literally, just a couple tweaks of how I wrote it and such). Here's your Chapter 2 answer :)


	4. 004 - Carry The World's Sorrows

**I apologize if this is rushed, I'm losing my writer touch :,^)).**

 **This is the prologue for _The Photographer_ and **_**i just can't forge** t_.

* * *

 **Carry The World's Sorrows**

The minute the baby was born into the world, it was confirmed that he wouldn't be able to survive. His parents were upset, his father in grief, and the mother unable to control her emotions as she poured them out, holding her newborn for the last time. Miraculously, he survived. As the line drew out on the heart monitor, it suddenly bumped up again all by itself.

His parents didn't know how.

The doctors checked on the newborn's Chaos Energy, finding it was the same as always. They were close to assuming, Sudden Infant Death. But nothing was manipulated. Nothing was out of this world.

The young cobalt hedgehog felt the energy enter his body. His mind flashed with the sadness his parents felt, just before he died, he was revived. Yet, Sonic didn't understand.

He grew up as a normal child. The narcissistic energetic blue blur that always caused a ruckus on the playground, and sometimes in classrooms. He did averagely like any other normal mobian. He had a lot of friends, particularly close to the twin-tailed kit and was easy-going as ever the world would ever be.

Sonic noticed something off the day he felt tired and too sick to move.

"He doesn't have a fever, but I assure within a few days' rest he will be better, Ms." The family doctor assured Sonic's mother.

The azure hedgehog curled deeper into the mass of fluffy warmness.

"Of course, thank you."

"If he starts showing signs of convulsion, vomiting, or any symptoms that are off, please contact me and the emergency medical services immediately."

His mother's faced frowned to a leisure of worry." Yes, I will. I'm sure it won't happen to Sonic?"

The doctor smiled. A warm smile. "Ma'am, I don't think it will happen. He is in normal condition, he just needs rest after being burned out. There's no flux in his Chaos Energy levels, so Sonic is going to be alright."

"Thank you."

He seemed just all fine and dandy.

The pain grew in his heart.

Vines twisting and turning, burying the deeper parts of the negativity, shards sticking into his memory.

Sonic shot up in his bed, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom.

Those horrible visions. He felt his mind shifting and shaping into another's. Sonic felt his energy drawing on the negativity, even if it's just a few houses down the road, his innocent eyes saw all the horror that lay behind closed doors. Shaking and trembling, he curled up into a miserable ball and stayed awake for the rest of the night.

The day he lost his innocence without knowing.

It was a painful process for the growing hedgehog. Sonic was tired. Everyday, he felt his Chaos Energy slip and pull all of the negativity from his peers, his teachers, and leave them to a blissful and happy state. Sonic wasn't sure if it had happened when he was a baby, drawing away his parents' grieving as he almost died in his mother's arms, yet, to be alive once again due to his Chaos Energy manipulation.

The azure hedgehog tried in every way to get rid of the sad feelings, the unhappy states of other, the stress and the thoughts each individual carried. He wasn't sure if he was able to take it all in without him breaking. Shattering. Sonic didn't want to live this way but he didn't have a choice. A day without having to draw away his peer's pains and fears. He felt his Chaos Energy field spreading farther and farther, even reaching to urban areas far from his school and hometown.

As he grew older, he began to distant himself from his family and friends. The two-tailed fox, a pink hedgehog, a red echidna, a bioweapon, all became blurs and eventually forgotten faces. It was no use remembering them if Sonic is continuously taking away their burdens and the memories that held them back. The azure hedgehog rather be forgotten.

He began to create his own wishes. He tried expressing his pain on instruments, he tried to be creative but ended up tearing the canvas in two. A teacher asked how he was doing everyday, asking if he was alright and he'll reply that he's just all fine. It's too late. The changes are quiet and sullen.

Everyone soon then went off on their own ways. Sonic wasn't a hero, just another person in the world.

It's all those what-ifs.

What if he didn't have the manipulation in his Chaos Energy?

What if he lived a normal life?

There were no answers.

School flew by and the azure hedgehog found himself working for G.U.N. The world became a better place somehow. Sonic sighed as he realized the field has stretched all around the world.

"Spikes in positivity! Lower rates of suicides and civil war seemed to cease all over the place."

"I'm concerned this society is becoming a utopia."

"Who cares! Lighten up. I've never felt this stress-free in all my years working here."

"Stress-free..."

"Zane come on."

The slam of the door indicated the azure hedgehog had exited from the room.

"Isn't he sensitive on these topics…?" The person named "Zane" asked quietly.

Sonic took up photography a few years after to distant himself from the surrounding negative thoughts he began to take on himself.

–

 _It is your duty. Your purpose. You're supposed to carry all of this._

Demons, possessions of mobians, corrupt Chaos Emeralds. A broken world, a holy dragon that unleashed an apocalypse. The Gaias. The world bends and there are no rules, just as all the negativity is sucked out to live in a peaceful utopia. Everyone is happy and smiling. All except for one.

Quote on quote: "The World Savior that no one knew about"

Sonic chuckled darkly to himself, as he watched the city bustle below from a city skyscraper. They eventually faded as he hoped and climbed the crane that stretched above the city limits and into the clouds.

"Are you a god?" He tilted his head toward the sky, eyes piercing the pale gradient blue above. He wished he could feel the fluffy clouds that cut away the lower half of the crane. "No, we're just moral beings that exist on this planet."

It was another day the azure hedgehog skipped out on work. Station Square resembled its peaceful nature, for still, everyday.

The air was cold and fresh. A lack of oxygen. The sun seemed to gleam through the clouds as it sunk below the horizon. Fresh smudges of orange blurred with pink, and the blue was as light as it can get. The overhead of the twilight sky was an ink of dark midnight blue, with tiny white specks sprinkling itself, creating constellations that have been breathed on the lips of astronomers.

He was sorry of how the way things ended.

Quietly, the hedgehog slipped down from the crane, careful not to fall.

The photographer danced.

Sonic fell into the depths of the city. A multiply layer of a gray-blue, the sun left golden rays streaking into the sidewalks, the trees dappling their own shadows on the ground. The rays burned brightly between buildings, as the electronic billboards lit up the sky. Ads flashed, advertising clothing, movies. Flowers grew in between the cracks of the sidewalks. The petals were tipped a deep purple and faded to a light white at the edges.

He was staring at building he once worked for and entered.

"Sonic."

"Yes?"

"You're fired. Shadow will take you under his wing to take care of you. You are not to speak of what goes on here to other civilians. You will be terminated. Do you understand?" Blink, goes those mis-matched, cold hard-stone eyes.

Sonic found himself staring at the ceiling for the past few days.

The many cameras, the aperture ranging from small sizes to long and slender. The lens had their caps covered, to prevent the cracking of glass and settling of dust. The room remained tidy and silent. He had not eaten for the past seventy-two hours.

And then Shadow was there. Sonic could feel his negativity and thoughts everyday, and he gradually pulled them away. The ebony hedgehog didn't notice. He never did, felt the grapple of his negative memories floating away from him. Sonic was tired. He felt awake and tired. He wanted to sleep, but all he would be dreaming is sitting in the abyss and staring at the many folder of memories and thoughts he had each and individually organized since the day he found out everything. How his chaos energy drew away a range of negative emotions.

It ranged from war to sexual abusers. He shuddered and locked them all away. When he died, they still would be sealed away. There would be no person to take on the role he has.

Years passed by, and he would eventually meet a bright two-tailed fox. Unbeknownst to him, he had not realized he had also sealed away his past memories. Whoever the yellow-furred fox was, and how he had impacted Sonic's life in the past all remained as a fuzzy haze.

And then it just became a monologue of blank words as the water surrounded him, drowning all noise.

He would enter a restaurant as nostalgia overcame him. The innocence he lost as a child. The opportunities he missed all because of his stupid genetics. It was over and so would his life be.

* * *

 **Hawkfeather [Guest]:** *pat pat and gives you tissues*. Here you go, I think this is the answer. I didn't mean for this to be a prologue before all the events, but I guess this chapter did, and _I slowly feel my loss of words on each one-shot._ I guess this is a three-shot story lol. All the rest may remain as one-shots except for 2-4. Oho that's amazing! I sometimes feel like everything I'm writing is OOC hhh :,^). AAAAAA IT'S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN :3. I SHALL STAY A ROOKIE WRITER. Noooo don't bash those poor readers, *puts down that neon sign of yours* UwU. I'm sure some will come around in time ^w^.


	5. 005 - Hallucination and Souls

**Hallucination and Souls**

Sonic tumbled back, his red-sneaker shoes sliding on the dusty, dirt ground. Shadow was gaining momentum. If he was just able to pin the charcoal hedgehog, it would all be over. The cobalt's heart pounded in his ears, his breathing ragged and sloppy. Triangle ears flattened against his head, the hedgehog picked himself up and back into a fighting stance. One leg out, the other bent to a rough ninety degree angle, fists up and about. He and the other pissed off hedgehog have been fighting for over a few hours.

"Are you tired?" the ebony whispered delicately, a flash behind Sonic indicated he was there. He was lucky enough to dodge a roundhouse kick to the head through sheer reflex.

"I don't want to fight Shadow." he retorted back bitterly, dodging and ducking through the lightning speed movement. His peach muzzle and chest were littered with gore and wounds. Blood stained his once shiny pelt. Albeit light-headed, the stubborn hedgehog continued to push on. No reasoning will do until he found himself dead on the ground.

Red eyes shone nothing but a plain monotone. Sonic back-flipped multiple times, his exhaustion finally catching up to him. Dust rose in the blood-red skies, staining the clouds, the explosions and crumbling of buildings from a distance. He fell on his back, tripping over himself, gasping for air. Quills flattened beneath him. Shadow loomed over his ragged body. The crackles of yellow from his the charcoal hedgehog's bloodied fist, Sonic knew he was meeting the end.

Death by a Chaos Spear. And Shadow.

The world melted into a subtle black before he even felt the pain.

[ o ]

Shadow woke up in a flash. The Chaos Spear, the impact that tore through Sonic's chest, white, black and then nothing, He stood up, quickly looking around. In the distance, there was a pop, and a blue hedgehog fell, bumping on an invisible platform. Shadow skated over, powering his hover shoes with the Chaos energy that resides within him. _Damn bastard._

There was only a white empty space, stretching for miles and through all the skies and around. Not even Shadow can see the ground, but he assumed he was standing on glass.

Said hedgehog was in a daze. Emerald eyes trailed over his arms and body. There were no wounds. No scars. Nothing, but just the purity of his skin and fur.

A switch echoed in the dome like place and the whole landscape turned black as ink. Rectangles of light floated around like a simulator showing all the world's data and graphs. There was no such memories, but just light, light glowing in the distance. Platforms lit up, connecting each other into place, co-joining and falling apart as the charcoal hedgehog moved away from the area. Sonic bounced away just in time as he felt the wind of a punch to his face.

"Why aren't you dead yet!" Shadow snarled, his clenched fists lighting up and sparking with uncontrollable energy.

Sonic sighed, apparently in full health and condition. "I don't know Faker. I just died and I'm here." He ducked as a Chaos Lance was summoned and launched toward his way. It grazed his cheek as he barely ducked out of the way.

An eye-splitting light stopped both combating hedgehogs in their tracks. Summonsed spears missed Sonic by mere meters as they were rudely disrupted from their intentional target. The light gradually died down. Now floating in the darkness, were not the rectangles both hedgehogs saw, but balls of light.

Balls.

Pfft.

Sonic laughed, as he wiped blood off his cheek. Shadow, was not amused. He was ready to attack the pincushion of the irritating blue rival again when he couldn't move. An invisible chain locked his wrist into place, so no matter how Shadow tugged and pulled, it would not budge. Sonic, noticing the commotion, looked at a very dismantled Shadow and couldn't suppress the laughs spilling from his lips, his vocal chords channeling a wonder. Death glares were sent his way.

 _No fighting!_ A tiny inaudible voice whispered. "Shut it hedgehog." Shadow snapped. "I think I heard something."

Sonic coughed as he stole deep breaths, calming himself. "Okay okay." He steadied himself, green eyes sparkling. Like when he wasn't just killed. Like when he wasn't just attacked by a pissed off ebony hedgehog for no reason. Or maybe when the sky turned red, that maybe just his eyes playing tricks on him. The world maybe still blue and green, but his mind was a junk load of corrupted data lately. Sonic doesn't remember as he tried reaching out in his radio memories. The rectangles of light glitched in the darkness, spazzing out every once in a while.

"I remember being here before, so you shut it Shadow."

The ebony hedgehog sent a deeper glare of hate toward Sonic. "So what are these, glowing lights, just floating in the darkness, probably replacing the rectangles of light."

"Those rectangles are memories. And these floating little guys are souls."

An expression of surprised flitted over Shadow's face, but it was quickly covered up to his regular stoic expression. Sonic noticed it. "I've been here multiple times for no reason. I always feel like they have been communicating with me here. I talked to Tails about it, but even little bro doesn't understand it either. Here, it always feels like I'm alone and alive."

"It doesn't cut the excuse for what you did-"

"Shadow Shadow Shadow." Sonic shook his head, quills bouncing lightly. "I only feel like you attacked me out of nowhere during the apocalypse."

"Apocalypse? What apocalypse-"

"So you started attacking me first. The sky was red and-" The blue hedgehog paused, "Well it seems you don't see what I see." His right arm flickered a bit, a flash of a symbol Shadow didn't recognize and it dimmed out. "Whenever I am here." Sonic continued, "I don't remember anything that happens here. Maybe bits and bits and feelings, but nothing else." he scoffed. "Probably feelings and touches and that's pretty much it."

Shadow felt the chains on his captured wrist loosen and he rubbed it with his free hand.

"You were obviously bothered by something, enough to come and attack me." the stoic blue hedgehog stated. "And even to kill. I thought you were done with murdering people?"

The ebony hedgehog expected hallelujah and a white glow from Sonic but there was nothing. He was still standing there, staring at him, waiting for an answer. His vision glitched, static filling his eyes, and Shadow blinked, trying to restore it. A strong urge leaped in his chest, and he shoved it down. Not this time. Eyes lowering to the ground, he spoke. "I wanted to get rid of you."

Sonic looked at him in surprise. Shadow smirked, letting it die on his lips. "You obviously don't understand. I've been here too. I just created a facade and pretended I didn't know. You do know well reading you is like reading an open book."

The world melted like water washing over a painting. The souls still remain intact, yet the whispers of awe came from them. The black washed away, as well with the rectangles. It transfigured into a scenery of another dome, yet, structured like a greenhouse yet fancier. Green leaves and plants shot from the skies and wrapped all around the structure, the vines weaving and intertwining with one another. Flowers, vibrating a magenta deep red faded to white at the edge of the petals. The sky transfixed to painting to dawn, the sunrise just about high to show all the feathery wisps and nature of clouds. White flowers sprung from the ground. A dance of the world transformed.

The souls cheered softly, growing in tiny gasps to an echo heard from all around. Shadow covered his eyes from the emerging sun, the star seeming to forever stay still. For such a broody hedgehog, he was quite impressed. He opened his mouth to speak, but re-thought about his words. "I know too much about this world too." He started, hesitating. "Being quiet gives me an advantage. Perhaps it made me more...observant. How you, and others communicate, laughing all the world would ever care, enjoying simple moments that I would see as not necessary. I work. And I think.

"And here you are!" Shadow gestured rather wildly. "I present thee you, this, this you, doing what? Is the world always going to create a horror show out of you? Oh man, all these dark hidden secrets, mental this, powerful, wonderful, damn god lurking within a host just ready to be release, and yet, yet..." the ebony hedgehog trailed off. "How many more copies of you do I have to kill? Are we always going to continue to fight for an eternity, that is because that's how our creators saw us as? Am I ever going to be more than just a fiend. Ha! Yeah. GUN goes after you because I was mistakenly you. And you continue to roll.

"I always feel I am traveling from one universe to the next. Like Silver. Yeah. I'm always warping. I just, got a little tired you know. Tired of seeing this all the time, you, always at least changing. I don't think I am able ever to go back to my original world. There's always just you."

Sonic pondered for a bit. He turned to face the distressed ebony hedgehog. "Honestly Shadow. I haven't really seen you like this before either. Distressed? Seems you got a breaking point," he chuckled. "I see you float around a lot too. Maybe this might be the final world. I tried to stay optimistic, because me too, I don't know who I really am. Here, and everywhere. Your original me must be quite the fun. I believe it has to do something with you, and your feelings."

The blue hedgehog walked over and poked Shadow in the chest. He smiled. "Why else would everyone be here? It seems they all know."

"As if everything is the same. We're just printed here, in the same nostalgic creation over and over. I can see that. We don't exist like this but the author is making us pose and dance around. OOC. They always wonder if they can write us correctly, but the fear of failure looms over their neck and ties a bow-tie noose. That's why they ditched us for the past month. Swallowed up in assignments and fearing to write again, and instead drawing us. Angst and beauty. Whatever shit they can think of."

Sonic glanced over at Shadow with a poker face. "It's probably why they didn't write anything for my birthday too. Or Scourge. They don't know too much about our friends, and they're afraid to try."

"Well the fucking bastard can man themselves up! They love to draw and write, both passions where it hurts their wrist and hand! So why not try? It doesn't matter if they are mistakes, at least they're learning for goodness sake!"

"Maybe this LSD session of ours can prove to them right. Their self-loathing and doubt is the only thing pushing them back." The souls were quiet. The atmosphere remained tense.

"True. But you have no idea how long I've been waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

Shadow pushed himself and went to hug the blue hedgehog. He froze. "This is for everything. Thanks for being the annoying stuck-up hedgehog that I know everywhere and everywhere."

Sonic relaxed himself, as Shadow let go and awkwardly stared. "Well..." Sonic tapped his shoe on the ground. "You wouldn't be you, if it I weren't me."

The scenery behind them flashed and away it went to a pitch black darkness. The same souls were still there, floating upwards toward the endless sky. Rectangles flashed, and platforms appeared beneath them before they fall to whatever gravity holds them dear. And it was eaten away by white light.

"I probably won't remember this, but you Shadow." Sonic looked at the ebony hedgehog one last time, "You will remember everything. I'm transporting you back to your original world, with me, and this canon universe. Say for me here..." the hedgehog flushed and looked a bit nervous. "I liked you here."

A flutter of lips trailed over Shadow's cheek, his body slowly dissolving to the mystical white. The souls cried, static and noise. Shadow shut his eyes and allowed himself to be warped into the endless gravity. At last. Home.

[ o ]

The sound of cars and-

Fuck this it's just vehicles and another day in this world. Mobius. There was a clatter downstairs and footsteps on the stairs. "Sugar?" Rouge opened the door to a very perplexed Shadow. His quills were rigid and standing on edge, and for some reason his hand was on his cheek. Ah the bat managed to pick up his movement and shifting.

"Rouge, I'm fine."

"A pleasant morning to see you looking as if you emerged from a dream and realized that everything is fake."

Shadow wildly looked around. Back at Rouge, then around his bare, but neat and clean room. He then turned to the amused bat. "Are you real?"

She almost choked on herself. "Shadow what else do you think I am? A robot? Honey I'm real!"

" **Affirmative**." Came a voice from behind the bat. " **Agent Rouge is alive and healthy. I do not see any issue-** "

"Omega, now isn't the time." Rouge looked concerned as she faced Shadow again. "Did you suffer some kind of trauma? Coma? Nightmare? You seem alright yesterday. You told me you were going home after finishing up your paperwork from the Commander while I had to do everything else. From there, I went to attend my club downstairs, but you, well you passed out like a dead weight."

"Rouge, I'm okay. Let me just, get ready and digest some things for a second."

"Alright. Call me if you need me!" Rouge waved, and she went back downstairs, ushering the few-ton robot to come with her. The door shut softly. With that, Shadow leapt out of a fifteen-story building from the third floor window and skated away to find Sonic.

The ebony hedgehog found Sonic napping high up in a tree. It was his birthday, yet everyone seemed to go on without a care in the world. Perhaps they were planning to surprise him. "Sonic."

The blue hedgehog cracked an eye open and looked down to find Shadow staring right back up at him. He grinned. "Hey Faker. What brings you here?"

"This." The ebony hedgehog climbed up the tree, hopping neatly in front of Sonic. He looked curious. Shadow patted the top of Sonic's head. Then he climbed back down. "Have a nice day." Sonic bolted straight up and stared at the disappearing black dot in the distance, his shoes leaving a trail of burnt grass.

"That hedgehog still gives me wonders." Sonic sighed and leaned back. He faintly remembered brushing his lips against Shadow's cheek in a faraway dream, but his mind failed to comprehend all the static memories and encounters he had previously with Shadow thousands and thousands of many universes before. He chuckled when a Chao snuggled up to him. The little innocent creatures reminded the many souls and lights he talked to. Including a girl Shadow wished to see one more time.

One more time.  
 _  
_Time.

 _One more time..._

* * *

 **Also Happy Late B-Day Sonic and Scourge. I made a drawing and posted it two days ago, but I apologize for not uploading anything.**

Hawkfeather:

I honestly don't know, I think I'll re-write it in the future. Of course I'll take suggestions! It kinda explains why I disappeared for a month. I'm sorry ;A;. My poor reviewer I'm sorry for leaving you and in the dying hopes of you never coming back *sobbb*. Anyways, I'll re-write _**Amnesia**_ with a better explanation and so forth.


	6. 006 - sayoko

**Dark themes ahead. And healing.  
**

* * *

 **sayoko**

Loss. The pain wallowed deep in his lifeless heart, his soul. Bleak red eyes settled on the ceiling. It was cracked at certain places, yellowing at corners, the plaster peeling away as morning sunlight crept its toes and sunk itself deep into the ebony hedgehog's bed. He was cold. Very cold. Not even burying under the black prints of a cotton-blanket can clear his mind from the dark depths of insomnia.

 _Ha!_

The Ultimate Lifeform suffering from insomnia?

Oh my my, the irony that is.

He was known to thrive without food, sleep, and water. Yet, here he is, lying in bed, bags hanging under his eyes, and the will to never move out of bed.

Shadow wanted to feel enraged. But he felt tired. He wanted to feel anything else than the blank slate he is. Of course, he's an engineered weapon! Weapons don't have feelings. It's quiet pathetic a human can render such emotions, like sadness. An angst driven hedgehog, he was deprived and stripped of his identity. Of course, "nobody understands". Does anyone honestly want to be created, having from the DNA of an unknown hedgehog and a notorious villain, Black Doom?

No no.

Nobody wants to be viewed as a monster.

Or even different. That's how reality works and how people function.

It's why he was written the way he is. Humans writing fantasies about him. The angst-driven hedgehog, the anti-hero. Even yet his creators that sketched over his design in ink and charcoal, never seemed to fill the gaping holes that makes them up for who he is.

Creak, as he rolled over in his bed. His apartment still stayed the same, unmoving. Shadow didn't want to move, didn't want to do anything besides lying awake and counting the days down to any true ending he is willing to take.

He's just talking to himself. He'll be fine. He'll eventually get rid of these horrid feelings and the thoughts that kept him many nights awake one by one.

 _I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I should have done something._

The regrets continued to linger inside his mind.

He regretted taking up the many days he would try to do something to only no avail. He is infinite, but he doesn't feel infinite. He wished to grasp the power of a writer but he isn't able to. Shadow isn't sure what he can do to make it better, to catch others, for them to be fascinated and read in awe. The ebony told himself to only write for himself, that it will be okay, not thousands of people have to read it, but only for himself. The critic he is. It isn't easy to write anymore, not with the failing motivation.

Yet it is all in his head.

His head can create all the stories but he can't write it out on paper and ink.

Now he will continue lying in bed, in the same dream he found himself in, since the day he lost all meaning and everyone was painted with all the colors of the world. He felt no connection to his words, since he feels he is a muddler. The paint he splashed on the walls continued to stay, the chemicals leaking and seeping into every crack. People were speaking, speaking, speaking.

A hedgehog hums a lost tune.

They say they hide. They pretend, with all those placid stupid faces.

Ah.

He's going off in his thoughts again.

He threw the knife at the wall and sighed once again, rubbing sleepy eyes. He felt so tired. A satisfying crack punctured through the plaster. Shadow decided to get himself out of bed for once.

After a shower and skipping out of the house, his mind screamed for him to get back into bed, that it was a terrible idea to go outside. His pupils dilated at the sunlight, the whole _damn_ brightness of this earthly world. He forced, he continued to walk, the red chaos emerald in his quills telling him to teleport into his office alrighty. The General won't mind he skipped on a few months of work and important missions that would have the world laid dead if Sonic wasn't involved. Or if Team Sonic never showed up and taken in Shadow's absence.

He fled all arguments and talks as he sat in his office and continued to complete all the paperwork that was stacked on his desk. Dust gathered in the dark room.

He chose to slip out a vial to keep his mind calm. His fucking mind is a mess. He can't think, everything just seems so fucking pathetic.

Addiction.

People say it's bad.

But the ebony hedgehog couldn't help himself as he continued to mindlessly fill out the words that make enough sense for anyone to understand. The liquor burned his throat and he lay down, drowsy, yet fine.

Shadow does this. Shadow doesn't do this anymore. Shadow is tired. His body is tired. His mind wants to shut down.

He ended up staying in the office with the door locked for several days, as he can no longer have the need to move. He felt hunger. It numbed.

The ebony hedgehog tried reaching back to his radio memories. Nothing made sense. It was blurry. He wasn't able to remember the name he once oh so adored. Pointless. Failure. He was no good for anyone.

Rouge found him staring into nothing when she pick locked the door, concerned for her friend's absence.

There were muffled shouts. His thin body picked up from the floor, the fearful and worried looks in the eyes of soldiers seeped into his mind. Just like those blue.

His mind decided to flicker to the day he stepped into a bar. He was vaping, Juuling for the first time. The rush of nicotine, the spice of flavor burned on his tongue and enlightened his mind to rid of all those terrible thoughts. Mobians alike left him alone. The ebony hedgehog decided to mix alcohol and other various substances to the exposed nicotine liquid he dumped into an empty shot glass.

The thrill, the rush, left him in awe, the world spinning around and around, until he decided to collapse like a drunk bastard. Laughter. Drunk laughter. He rid of his pain and the misery that was burned into his wrists. Shadow no longer existed with reality, falling falling like the idiot he is. Another Mobian dragged him away to the dance floor, and he was swinging around from one to another, twirling with other citizens. Neon lights blurred in the darkness. The agent twirling away into the night, shining the light on him, he's fine, he's smiling, he's laughing. Drunk. The ache from his chest was gone.

Snapping back to where he was, he felt his body feeling lighter and lighter. Darkness crept at his vision. The light was shining ahead. A cry telling him to wake up. Shadow tuned them out.

The ebony will accept...

It's okay.

It's over.

[ o ]

Rouge spent days trying to figure out what happened to Shadow. Sure, after the Infinite War and with Eggman disappearing, but coming back again to bother Team Sonic, Team Shadow seemed to lay in the dust. The dark hedgehog had a few bad years, but never had the bat anticipated this.

They were not allowed to be let inside. Just for an hour and that was pretty much it, since the ebony hedgehog was placed under close watch. Shadow lay connected to life support, a mask covering his nose and mouth. It was also balancing his chaos energy levels. His enhanced regeneration maybe able to repair his brain due to the severe damage of the drugs and alcohol, but it won't be able to fix what's hurting mentally. The miserable beeping indicated he is still alive. Sonic was asleep in a corner of the room, his head bobbing. Knees drawn toward his face. His eyes blinked open again he rubbed them, obviously weary and tired. Tails, Knuckles, and Amy were all waiting outside of the room in silence. Instead of Knuckles' usual anger, he just walked out. Tails' muzzle was streaked with tears and so was Amy's, slowly falling from her eyes.

Team Sonic wasn't able to process it. Process what happened.

Shadow, out of all people, slipping away from the fabrics of reality.

She sighed. Omega. They're alright. They were only able to detect that Shadow's physical well-being is okay, but then stated that Shadow isn't "right in the head". He isn't going insane, he's just fallen into a bottomless pit with no way out. The more he tries, the more he cuts people away like they are ribbons. She paced back and forth, her boots clicking on the lightly patterned tile floor. The LED lights were annoying and it hurt her eyes. The walls were painted white. Just like every other hospital.

"Rouge?" the blue hedgehog croaked. It had been about an hour since they all arrived, two hours since they received the news.

"Yes Blue?"

"How long have you known Shadow?"

Rouge pondered for a bit. "Oh well so, a couple years or more."

"Have you ever known about his condition like..." Sonic gestured toward the ebony hedgehog. "Like this?"

The bat remained silent. She took a deep breath and sighed. "Shadow...had a few bad years. But I didn't know about his addiction...or what sorts he is going through." She ran a hand over her face, mumbling incoherently. "Shadow is just Shadow you know? He always has a poker face. Even I can't tell what's going through his mind, being seductive, master of this and all glorious revolutions said."

Silence drifted between both of them again, with the consistent beeping in the background.

"You know Rouge," Sonic spoke quietly. "me running around the world like an egoistical person I am, it kinda always ticks everyone off to some degree. But other than the me you're looking at, I do truly care for everyone. Even if it's someone who tried to kill me countless times over. Even if I don't show it. I don't know what I'll do if I lose anyone because I wasn't able to protect them."

"If the world were to end through Shadow's hand, I would have remembered him as a simple memory." Rouge added.

"Yeah." Sonic's mouth twitched to a smile. "If we never saw each other again, he would be a memory later forgotten, into the fair share of hills and valleys that life decides to role us with. Some may remember him as a notorious villain, but really, I think he's just hurt. He chose not to show it."

The bat blinked at Sonic. His face only displayed weariness. Underlying to tiredness was hope. He stood up and stretched, cracking all the bones and stretching sore muscles. "I wish I can stay longer, but I have to go. I'll bring everyone else home. Tell Shadow hi for me if he wakes up." the blue hedgehog swallowed nervously. "I wish you the best Rouge and for Shadow."

The door opened and slid shut behind him. Outside, quiet whispers threaded itself into the silent room, but Rouge chose to tune them out, despite her enhanced hearing. She went back to watching her comrade's chest rise and fall. Until she was told to leave and was escorted out of the room.

 **. . .**

"Agent Rouge. Have you known anything about of Shadow's problems?" the Commander asked. No inch of concern. Just the cold, hard voice the bat has always known.

"No sir." she responded.

"How long do you think he has been in this condition."

"Sir, I do not know."

"You are dismissed. Tell Shadow what I told you beforehand."

Rouge left the room, unflinching even as she shut the door behind her. She strolled down the large hallway, avoiding the sympathetic looks from other soldiers and officers alike. Conversation died as she turned corner after corner, exiting the large headquarters. Whispers spread like wildfire. She told herself to tun everyone out, as long as she left the building, she'll be fine.

Since then, she looked through Shadow's belongings, looking for a clue to where he is now. Prescription pills. Possibly from the black market. GUN is notorious for being shady. Razor blades that are dull and old, in that mysterious desk Shadow has in his bedroom. It seems he hasn't touched them in years. Hidden small plastic bugs filled with unknown substances in cabinets. Quite the hiding place. Rouge wished she checked them more, despite never being around. Empty bottles in drawers. She opened the curtains, letting the sunlight shine through.

His bedroom was a horrendous sight to see. With a sigh, she began to clean up the place, but not without retrieving a large trash bag to throw away all of Shadow's toxic belongings. The things that harmed him in the first place. He must have tried everything to reverse the woes of his mind, to remember who he is and save himself without help from others. Rouge only wished he reached out sooner before he fell away to know where he is now.

As she was cleaning up, sweeping the floor, wiping down all glass, and dusting away, she found a stash of paper hidden away in one of the cracks in the closet.

Upon unwrapping the crumpled papers, she looked through the first one. They were scribbles and crossed out words. The scribbles went to as tearing the page, holes and tears in places. It was impossible to read anything. Rouge felt wrong reading through his problems, but she wanted to find out. After all, it's natural for someone to look through someone's belongings and read them. Even if it's disturbing and distrusting enough.

The next few pages were the same as the previous. In the mess, she found folded pieces of paper. Origami. He folded cranes. Strings were attached to the wings, as if he was planning to hang them up, or set them free. They were about five hundred or more, she estimated. One thousand paper cranes eh? The old legend of folding and flying one thousand paper cranes to the sky. Hope. He had hope. It died as she continued to sift through the piles. And then there were words.

Short haikus and poems. Stories composing of a better life. Writing about their friends. The battles and events both teams have already fought before. Even a letter to "her". Out of all the papers, there were only paragraphs and paragraphs of past events. A pain of nostalgia tried seeping its way into her emotions but she shrugged it off. She glanced at the paper cranes again.

There were tiny words on it. The words weren't very coherent, but she made out a few words here and there. Every paper crane had one. It's as if he would later hang them up on a tree, and then let them go. A special message for every individual who will receive them. Hope before he cried.

The bat suddenly stood up and took one final sweep around the room. Apart from the papers on the ground, it was tidy and organized. Nothing remained of Shadow's past. She swept the curtains and the room was quickly enveloped in darkness. With that, she put as many cranes as she can in an empty cardboard box, and put it back in the closet. Rouge tied the trash bag and closed the door, throwing out any evidence that remained. She would pay another visit to the ebony hedgehog.

Flying above the vehicles and landing at the front doors of the hospital, she strolled in. She quickly informed the clerk that she was here to visit Shadow; he nodded and pointed her in the direction of where she should go. A quick thanks and off Rouge went, bounding up stairs and waited as the door to his room slid open. Shadow was awake and was sitting up. Instead of the mask that connected him to life support, an IV drip was connected to his arm. The heart monitor was still beeping away as usual.

Both mobians locked gazes. The ebony hedgehog was the first to break contact. Rouge stepped further inside the room, allowing the door to close behind her. A simple sweep of the room told that he was moved to another room. A window was open, unlike the previous where there were just walls, and he was aside from other patients a few doors down, where only a curtain divided them.

Gifts were piled into a corner. A large basket from Cream and Vanilla. The most elegant. Boxed presents from Sonic and Tails. The neat wrapping indicated Sonic was the one who did it, Tails probably may have set fire on others. Knuckles and Amy apparently collaborated with each other and a large box was the only one visible and most outrageous looking object Rouge had ever set eyes upon. The Chaotix had also sent in something, but it was small. A paper crane. The bat assumed Espio had suggested it.

Rouge was the first to break the silence. "Pleasant morning Sugar."

"Morning to you too." Shadow mumbled.

"Omega isn't here if you're looking forward to them. They decided to go offline for a bit. The Commander let us off for a few weeks, perhaps two months until you are fully recovered."

Shadow nodded, and continued to stare at the plastic paper around his wrist. "I assumed you went to my room while I was...here."

"I did." Rouge stated bluntly. Shadow didn't take too kindly with lies and manipulation. "I was only tidying it up. I also found, your paper cranes and papers."

"You read it didn't you?"

"Of course Sugar, you know I can't keep my hands off of those...things. But you know, I was only concerned for you Shadow. Did the others come here and give you all these gifts while you were still asleep?"

"I think so. I wasn't awake, and I just woke up to find you here in this room."

"How long do you think you'll be staying here?"

Shadow paused. He seemed, ashamed. "Here for a week...or more. Until I'm not a danger to myself or anyone else, and attending...therapy with others. I'll be released when the progress shows that I'm doing well and cooperating with others. I'm already assigned to an outpatient therapist. I may have to attend rehab too. That's what my psychiatrist said."

"Alright Shadow." Rouge thought back to a few books she read previously before. "Take your time alright? Everyone's here to support you. I genuinely mean it. Say, do you want to open all those gifts now, or do you want me to carry them home and leave it in your bedroom?"

"Just leave it in my bedroom. If there's any food, leave it in the fridge."

"Okay Sugar." Rouge picked up as many gifts as she can. "I'll be coming back to check on you daily. And to put all of this in your room. I almost forget. Sonic says hi. Have a wonderful day, okay?"

Shadow didn't say anything as the bat flew out of the room. Albeit feeling uncomfortable for being treated like a baby, he said nothing. He found himself being moved to another room, a room with no windows, where he was put under suicide watch. It felt like prison all over again.

[ o ]

"Good morning! Today, we have a new mobian coming in today. Shadow the Hedgehog?"

Several pairs of eyes turned to look at the ebony hedgehog entering the room. They watched as he seated himself awkwardly in a plastic chair. Silence floated over the group. The nurse radiated a warm, yet gentle atmosphere. Unlike the other nurses, who came to check on a patient's vitals, giving them medication and food, there was the rare occasion that a nurse would treat everyone as if they were still human and talked and laughed along with them.

Flowery walls. A sky tiled ceiling. It seemed out of place, but welcoming enough.

"Hello Shadow!" the group said, all together like a chorus. The ebony hedgehog only waved.

"What brings you here today?" one of the mobians asked. He had light bangs, yellow eyes and softly patterned fur. A female rabbit with dark colored hair, wrapping like waves down her back. A fox, a cat, and a rat.

The ebony hedgehog struggled under his gaze. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it." the female rabbit added. "But here, we're all here for one thing. To heal. Regardless of where we came from, what we are known for, our economic class, where we work, it's okay to express. Nobody's going to judge. Well at least here anyways."

Shadow looked at the ground. He was here for a reason. Looking directly in the faces of others, there was a story to tell. A burn out from working at a strict job. Domestic and substance abuse. The faces that have lived a life, those who admitted themselves here, others have already tried to end because they gave up. Just like he did.

The ebony hedgehog took a breath and began, a simple version of who he is, and why he is here, despite being immortal.

 **. . .**

The next few weeks went by like a breeze. Shadow displayed excellent behavior, and showed no signs of intentionally hurting others. He was moved to the rehab center multiple times so they can help with his addiction and make sure it doesn't happen again. Even immortals have problems they cannot run away from.

He made friends with the people who attended group therapy. He was always with them, despite knowing he is a biological engineered weapon. Everyone around respected him. The hospital was a place to help. There's no quick fix, and it takes time and effort to earn the "you're alright and you are discharged". GUN has been paying all the insurance and the medical bills to keep Shadow in the hospital. The Commander exhibited no signs of compassion, he just wanted his agent back up and ready for another mission. Apparently, Rouge argued against him and rumors spread that the bat threatened to leave if he did not give Shadow some healing time after coming back. The Commander had to comply. After all, they were one of the top agents in the entire organization.

Shadow was moved into another room with another patient. The patient was a male mobian, who was alright with the ebony hedgehog's stay. He would often talk about his family, his kids, and his wife. He checked himself in one day after he felt the impulse to murder his youngest child. He didn't understand why, he didn't want to murder his kid. Both mobians ended up having a conversation that lasted well past curfew. A nurse came in to inform them it was past bedtime and both should be going to sleep. Shadow tried. He isn't the hedgehog who needs sleep and food, but realizing the last time he neglected all important necessities that drained his chaos energy levels, he did.

Team Sonic and Rouge were always visiting, despite the strict hours in the psych ward. Sonic was much lighter on Shadow than before. Instead of the usual joking and sarcasm, he was delicate on the humor and respected Shadow's boundaries. Rouge always asked questions, asked how he was doing and what it is like, before spilling her story about the outside world. Cream and Vanilla occasionally visited him, showering him with goods Rouge would always bring home to store away for later.

The male mobian, going by the name, Jake asked him a question after Sonic left and being escorted out of the room. "You have pretty nice friends eh?"

"I do."

"Don't say it as if its your wedding." Shadow almost choked. Jake let out a laugh. "It's good to see you in a cheery mood."

"I'm usually not like this around my friends. Sonic included."

"Ah, the famous Sonic the Hedgehog. With his team, running around the world and saving from Dr. Eggman. Say, he hasn't been attacking lately. Maybe it's just because he found out about you?"

"The doctor wouldn't attack. He and Sonic have been at each other's throats for years now but it's all child's play. He is evil but it's just a heated rivalry that will never end in the world at his iron fist. Both know and understand that. He maybe ridiculous with his schemes, but they usually end on a positive note."

"That's good." Jake nodded. "I hope you'll be well on your way out here. I heard much about you from the nurses and doctors that stroll through this hallway. Most are impressed with your recovery. Other patients here...aren't so lucky." his lips twitched to a melancholic smile.

"It isn't just about luck. It's just, well..." Shadow struggled to find the words he was looking for. "It's tougher for them. That's all."

"Heh." Jake chuckled. "You'll be alright Shadow. You just need some guidance and a ticket way to freedom. You're like a sayoko."

"Sayoko?"

"Sayoko means evening child in Japanese. You don't ever seem to sleep and always seem to have something on your mind. Take time to enjoy life, and observe the scenery more than you ever will."

Shadow turned to look at the mobian. Only integrity. He stood up and stretched, feeling his muscles and bones relax in mere weeks. "I will. I think I'm going to miss this place."

Jake shook his head, "Don't worry. Here." he handed the hedgehog his phone number. "We can talk anytime if you feel like it. This place maybe a living prison but it's still worth it. Everyone remembers who they met while staying in this ward. We all might become a faint distant memory, but at least somewhere, it's stored inside here." The mobian pointed to his chest, "Our heart. Cheesy enough, but I sincerely mean it. Like having a family that cares for you."

"Thank you sir."

 **. . .  
**

 _"_ _I hold your hands and count my steps...one...two...three..."_

Shadow has been discharged from the hospital. Somewhere, he tucked away Jake's phone number, and proceeded to look through all of the gifts. Rouge stayed with him. Thankfully, she didn't treat him like he was glass. They were books from Sonic and Tails, aesthetic of some sorts from Cream and Vanilla, a box inside of a box, inside of another box with a gleaming red Chaos Emerald from Amy and Knuckles. They sure did keep it shining and safe. The paper crane from the Chaotix, he left it aside with all his other paper cranes.

"What do you think you'll be doing with all of those cranes?" Rouge asked, as they were sorting the gifts and putting more packaged food into the cupboards.

"Light it up."

The bat looked a teeny bit concerned. "You mean set it up in flames?"

"No Rouge. For Christmas. Wrap the cranes in you know, those Christmas lights everyone likes to decorate when winter comes around. When spring comes, we'll set them free. I just have another two hundred or so to fold."

"What do you suppose the tiny little bits of writing on the cranes mean?"

"They're just messages."

"Honey-" Rouge cut herself off. "Shadow, you do know they all symbolize hope?"

"Yeah."

"Shadow?"

"Hm?"

Rouge placed a hand on his shoulder. "Remember, if you need anything, I'm here. We're here. We can get through this, together. Say, you have an appointment with your therapist later this afternoon. I heard she's the best all around and is very kind. I personally found her myself."

"Thanks Rouge. You didn't have to."

"Sugar, anything for you. Oh I almost forgot. Omega's here."

The robot stomped into Shadow's bedroom. The curtains were open, letting all sunlight pass through the glass windows. " **Good morning Agent Shadow. How may I be of your assistance?** "

Shadow smiled. A faint smile, that quickly evaporated to his stoic expression. Rouge chuckled. "Nothing really Omega. It seems you are doing alright?"

" **The Commander has provided me upgrades. I am better and stronger than ever before.** " The robot stated. Its optics looked over Shadow. " **Do I have permission to scan you that you are fit and are in better health?** "

"No worries. Please do not scan me."

" **Are you sure, Agent Shadow?** "

"Yes, yes I am alright."

" **Understatement. Agent Shadow-** "

"Shh. Shadow's alright. He's going to visit someone who will help him, two times every week. So don't worry dear." Rouge nudged in. "Let's say we shall finish these cranes?"

There was a bang downstairs. "I'll add I definitely did not add anyone over."

"Shads? Faker?"

Sonic. He definitely decided to pay a visit today. "I heard you were discharged from the hospital, just about a few minutes ago when I called to check in to see if you were still there." he shouted from downstairs. Nope, Sonic didn't know.

"Blue, just come up here!" Rouge ignored the frantic looks in Shadow's face. "We're just about to fold some paper cranes!"

"Of course! Folding cranes have always been my specialty." Footsteps up the wooden stairs."Besides trying not to burn down Tails' workshop when hot-wiring, his.,.or my plane. I don't know." The blue hedgehog was at the door to his bedroom. "Hey Rouge! Hey Shadow! Can I join in with you guys?"

"Sure." The bat handed Sonic a stack of paper. "Two hundred to go down with."

"Ahem." Shadow interjected. "It's actually three hundred and one."

"Darn it." both mobians sighed.

" **Do I get to do anything Agent Shadow?** " Omega piped up. Sonic jumped.

"Whoa, hey there Omega. What's up?"

" **My systems are functional.** "

"Oh-kay."

About an hour or so later, there were scraps of paper littered all over the floor, an exasperated Rouge muttering she had to clean up again, Sonic leaning against the bed frame, and Shadow was proud to display all of the one thousand paper cranes. Strings all connected. Omega decided to go offline, but unbeknownst to any, Rouge had asked to install a video camera to record all of Shadow's joyous moments. It's like a personal record.

"We're finished. What do we do now?" asked Sonic.

"Put it in my closet."

"Sure we do. Rouge? I'll do the cleaning up. Can you put away the scissors?" The ebony hedgehog glanced to check the time on the wall. "I have to go. I trust you guys that you'll be responsible for the rest?"

"Sure we do." Rouge and Sonic chorused. Shadow Chaos Controlled out of the room and into the waiting room.

Night was falling by the time Shadow came back. It was a bit late, he knew, but the hedgehog was out on a stroll to observe nature's finest. Upon the door opening, he was met with a distressed Rouge. He affirmed that he was alright and didn't do anything too, disastrous for his tastes. The bat ushered Shadow to the dining table, with Sonic already chowing down the food. Surprisingly, he wasn't offered any chili dogs, but soup. Rouge was here and there as she turned on the heater to warm the small, cozy apartment.

Afterwards, Shadow was reading a book. Sonic requested if he could bunk for the night, since he didn't know what to do. Rouge was okay with it, and went downstairs to work. Silence drifted between both hedgehogs. "Sayoko?"

Shadow looked up to see the blue hedgehog staring at the TV. It was on mute, but the colors flash across the screen, displaying an act, a scene. "Rouge called you that earlier."

" **Sayoko means 'evening child' in Japanese. It is originally derived from 'Sayo'.** " Omega chimed.

"Oh." Sonic blinked. "A nickname fitting for someone like you, Shadow."

The grin of his. It seemed forced. "You don't have to force yourself to be positive if you aren't feeling like it." the ebony hedgehog stated.

"Sorry. Man, I'm just a little tired today."

" **Negative. You have not slept in over two days.** "

"Omega did you just scan me without permission?"

" **Affirmative. You are not in well condition. You must rest immediately.** "

"I don't want to."

Silence drifted between all three again.

"It's just been a stressful month you know?" Sonic spoke quietly. Omega's optics flickered, and Shadow looked up from the pages. "When I first heard from Rouge and the others that you were in the hospital, I couldn't really believe it. My rival, who suddenly vanished for no reason and was just found in his office on the verge of being in a coma for a long time. Everyone knows you can't die, but your chaos energy levels were low. Your body was overworking itself to provide the nutrients you needed. It's what Tails told me. He understands a bit of biology.

"It kinda, well, you know, stressed me out. I didn't eat very well until Amy and Knuckles came by to shove food down my throat. Master Emerald guardian and all, Knuckles manages his stress very well. Except the few times he knocked down trees on Angel Island. Amy spent most of her time at Cream and Vanilla's. Egghead paid a neutral visit and offered sympathy. As for Tails and I? We just talked. We talked, even when I had nightmares. I can't turn back time and saying I wish I had done something. It's over and all of us have to move on. Especially you Shadow. Accepting things are difficult. We are here, because of who we are. And so are you. It took almost destroying the whole world to find that it isn't the right path.

"I'm not very good when it comes to emotions. Mostly anger and optimism, sometimes sympathy and compassion, rarely empathy, but it's the sadness I hid too. I later learned that it's okay to express sadness. It did feel terrible and awkward at first, but that emotion and I grew to like each other. Most of all, I care for others. Even if you did try to kill me multiple times." the blue hedgehog chuckled. His eyes were damp, and he wiped the on-flow of tears away. "My heart was hurting for some reason when I found out. This sorrow right here." he pointed toward his chest. "It was the worse kind of pain I ever felt. You're still here Shadow. And I'm glad. I really am..."

The blue hedgehog furiously wiped away all the tears and he looked at the ground. Anywhere but Shadow's shock. Sonic stood up, held Shadow's hands, looking at his wrists where the scars would be, and then hugged the ebony hedgehog. Shadow was still frozen like a rock.

"Your heart is beating pretty loud you know." Sonic murmured. Shadow only loosened himself up, to return the hug.

As midnight came and went, Sonic was snoring on the couch, Omega remained offline and was recharging itself. As for Shadow? He slept on the floor next to the blue hedgehog.

One thousand paper cranes decorated the entire living room. One thousand paper cranes lit up the room. A blur of blue, red, green, and white. He held his hand, counting the numbers, to one hundred, and a thousand.

* * *

 **Guest 01:** I apologize that you didn't understand ^^. This is just a collection of one-shots. If there's a continuing story, then there would be a small note at the top indicating which is which. Like _**The Photographer**_ , _**i just can't forget**_ , and _**Carry The World's Sorrows**_ are a three-shot, because they link one event after the another. The rest are just still separate from each other. The first story, will soon be tying in with others. There will be a note at the top indicating which. I hope this clears up for you. Aaa you mean the feels most be strong for you? *pat pat and hug*.


	7. 007 - Everything and Everything

_happy birthday to me...  
i gotta stop writing depresso stuff  
_

* * *

 **Everything and Everything**

 _There's these voices in my head.  
I want to see you again and again,  
Before I can't anymore._

Silver has some thoughts. The silver hedgehog overlooked the future city. A home that he and Blaze called until they were transported back in time, whether their world looked grim. Time to time it was saved, all thanks to a particular blue hedgehog and his friends, saving the world, jumping time and space to meet all ends and needs.

The quills on his head prickled, as he found himself back by Emerald Coast. The scent of fresh rain and grass floated through the breeze. Salt mingled in from the ocean. He has come a long way. Knowing Team Sonic and Team Shadow, as well with the mad doctor Eggman himself. The landscape sculpted and washed away, as if water poured over the still drying pastels. It warped to the starry night skies. Peaceful and enduring. Nebulas, stars formed their constellations, comets streaked across the dark ink.

It was said that it would take a normal human eye from fifteen minute to an hour for their pupils to adjust to the sky ahead. No electronics were allowed, otherwise, the stars wouldn't bloom in one's vision like a flower.

He wanted to explore more and more. He had so little time to look back in the past, since he didn't want a paradox in space and time. Silver's okay. He's just a little tired from running back and forth. He wanted to see Blaze again, but she lived in an alternate dimension. The silver hedgehog rarely saw her.

Nowadays, he rarely saw any of his friends from the past. Whether it was anyone's birthday, or a rare invitation to come and join along with the crew, he went as he came. If his words had any meaning, now they don't, coming out dirty and meaningless. Days passed by, the sun rose and set, evening came and clinging to the last bits of winter.

The future was an interesting place. But it gets boring after a while. The past is where Silver enjoys his time the most. An adventure, the thrill of a lifetime. He's stuck here though. Watching the buildings stretch high into the sky, the clouds vanishing from sight, a clear morning shining its way through and through. The technology and advanced placements are the world's cures. What each and every leader has been striving for. But did it cost the happiness of those who enjoyed nature?

Yes.

Yes it did.

The future isn't a utopia. It's still a dystopia, with the past issues fixed. It just seems different though. A perfect world. A slightly altered "perfect".

There was a new invention that allows someone to warp their imagination to a specific place of where they want to be. Even replaying memories if allowed, but at an extra cost.

Silver was there. He wanted to look at everything and everything one last time. Everywhere and the places he wished he could breath in the surrounding flooring beneath him.

Chasing after Doctor Eggman NEGA everyday. It was tiring. He was even worse than Doctor Eggman from Sonic's time. He didn't care. He wanted everything he wanted, not even caring if the world was burned down to hell and ashes. It's his duty. For now, the doctor of Silver's time had vanished somewhere.

The time blinked in Silver's vision. He had only about ten minutes left. The hedgehog closed his eyes and allowed himself to remember a memory he always told himself he would never forget.

A flash, and said hedgehog was back at Emerald Coast. It was Sonic's birthday. It felt just like months ago when it was only days.

He was sitting atop a palm tree, as the others were playing in the shallow waters. The blue hedgehog and the two-tailed fox were busily chattering away. Knuckles and Blaze were in a deep conversation. Rouge and Shadow were silently observing. The bat decided to provoke the red-head echidna by interrupting Blaze and teasing him for who knows how long.

No, not that memory. Silver doesn't want to remember that. He thought of space and exploding stars as the memory quickly faded, washed away again and again, his body warping to another time. He opened his yellow-tinted eyes and found the world beneath him. No no back again, and down onto Mobius, where he was clinging on the rails of a slowing train. A meteor shower was arriving and he almost missed it.

Small groups of friends clustered together. A couple of others set up telescopes and were preparing to point out the rest of the sky that fell together. Silver jumped off the train as it slowed to a stop, waving good-bye to the unknown passengers to the places where they will go. A camera around his neck. He worked so hard to pay the expenses for all the sleek lenses and just one body. Patting the camera, he walked until he was underneath a tree. He powered off his phone, and waited.

Time trickled by, slowly, but then quickly, as the stars left a trail through the sky. The sun vanished from view, and all there was a trickle of summer saying good-bye and fall entering through its breezes. The meteors fell. The comets streaked. There was a chorus of gasps, and it quickly broke out into clapping and small talk. With every photo Silver took, he remembered he would save it into a hard drive. Not that nowadays, people save everything on the cloud. A hard drive serves as a time capsule.

The screen quickly flashed dark and Silver stood in the room, taking the gear off his head, careful not to let it poke through all his spines and quills, and put it on the table.

"Thank you for using **Imagination** **2.0**. We are glad you have used our services. Please leave a review on our website. If you would like to continue for another five minutes, please pay ten xx."

The hedgehog left the room and floated his way back to his apartment.

 _No matter how many times I tried to eradicate myself,  
time doesn't want to kill me._

Silver tried again and again, to erase himself but he always woke up everyday to the same bedroom. The sun just on the verge of rising, the quiet hum of the air conditioner, and the silence near the breech of the city. Everything he did to eradicate himself failed. It was his birthday once again.

Not the fact really but too little remembered the date. The first time, it hurt. Acceptance came along and a sigh followed as it dissolved to numbness. Bleakly looking ahead, he lay the sketches on the desk accompanied with a mechanical pencil and a photograph. The horizon of the group part of the aftermath of the Infinite War. Smiles all genuine, even the rookie Gadget. Silver wondered how the past was repairing itself, and Eggman disappearing since. There maybe scattered attacks here and there, but the group are able to handle it just fine.

He detected a teleportation not too far away in his apartment. A two-tailed kit tumbled out followed by a blue hedgehog. Tails looked ready he was to burst into tears and a sheepish Sonic was trying his best to hold the kit back.

"Silver..." the young kit choked out. "Please..."

Shadow came from the well, the shadows. Yeah sure. He reflected nothing but concern and sympathy. Sonic dragged the charcoal hedgehog over and hugged a tired Silver.

"We're really here for you, regardless of what's happening in your life. It could be shit, but just remember we are always going to be here." Sonic delivered, quick but delicate. A warmth simmered in Silver's chest. A place where he thought he would never feel again.

For the first time after punishing himself in years and years to count, he cried. Shadow continued to hold him until he fell asleep from all the tears and emotions bottled up inside.

Sonic's eyes were hollow as he looked at Shadow. Red eyes settled for the rising sun, shattering the dark ink of the fading evening sky. "It's going to be okay." Sonic whispered. "It's going to be okay. You, Silver, it's all going to be okay. I genuinely believe it. I'm not going to give up now...just because..."

"Yeah." Shadow looked up from the sleeping silver hedgehog. "You too Tails." The two-tailed kit quickly wiped away his tears. "Let us support Silver. Until he's okay."

"It's alright for him to come back with us to get the help he needs. We just need to remind him we are always going to be here. Everywhere and everything, we're friends." the kit added.

The possessions remained steadfast as the four mobians exited the quiet apartment. Sonic turned around, before leaving too.

"Happy birthday Silver."

* * *

 **Guest** : Thank you!


	8. 008 - Red Pen

**Red Pen – PowaPowa-** **P** **3rd** **Year Anniversary – 23.07.18**

 _Rest in peace._

 _A thought if Eggman's past is...different.  
Note: This is not canon to Robotnik's past in anyway, shape or form.  
This is more of a "what-if".  
_

* * *

 **Post-Infinite War  
** **Part 01 of** **Red Pen**

 _):)_

Summer. It was hot, humid, and terrifyingly annoying. Station Square remained the same. Sonic has traveled on many journeys, across time, inside the fantasy of books, and all over the world, wherever the adventure decides to take him and Eggman too. Well, he's there. But not really there. Contributing to major vital factors. After the Infinite War, Eggman disappeared.

The jackal was supposedly taken care of, but there is no further information about him.

The adventure he most enjoyed hearing about was when Eggman dragged Sonic into outer space once more. Built a whole beautiful amusement park, only to turned, as forever, of course, an evil scheme behind it all. Yet as he continued to listen to Sonic walk around and describe, with Tails bashing him for his recklessness and probably be lost in space forever, the parks continued to burn a painted image in his mind.

Summer. He's sitting in his bedroom, the only sound coming from his breathing and the chirps of the birds outside, with the occasional vehicles coming to and fro.

Summer. The trees bloomed a lovely green, all the colors of Verde from the after spring shower.

The events still played in the hedgehog's mind. Beaten endlessly by the jackal, and then thrown into a jail cell, where torture and agony waited, and for Death with his scythe to end his miserable life. Six months he spent staring at the ceiling, his wrists in electrical cuffs.

And no thanks to Shadow. The ebony hedgehog quietly admitted it was his fault, and only to Sonic. His friends and the others wouldn't take it too well if they found out. Although they wouldn't dare say it out loud, there would be pitiful glances every once in a while.

He sighed and dragged himself out of bed, tempted to relax on the roof and then chill with Tails as usual. Every day has been the same. Travel around the world to help with construction and gathering materials, updates with the rest of his team, and by the end of the day, go home and sleep until Tails came back. Sometimes, Tails would fire up the Tornado, and they would journey back together over land and ocean. The high, freezing winds pulling at his quills. Oh, how Sonic missed the free-fall of gravity tugging him down, forever and ever, but not forever.

Team Dark had not been heard in a while. Confiscating secret government files, whatever G.U.N. had pulled them up to now.

The blue hedgehog was noticeably, more prickly than usual.

Amy noticed it. Tails noticed it. Everyone saw it. Whenever someone mentioned, "Eggman", he would visibly flinch, but quickly cover it up with an easy-going smile. No one bothered to ask.

The months Sonic would stress about the doctor, running out for hours and not coming back until the early morning hours of the next day. He was desperate to find the doctor, track him down and lock him behind bars forever.

What happened to the good old days? When the younger latter stroked him by the quills, let him fool with his machinery–

 _No._

The word echoed in Sonic's mind. The hedgehog cannot forgive what the doctor had done this time. Sure, it may be all fun and games, harmlessly capturing little animals, but he never knew Eggman would fall down such a pit of…

Unhappiness and insanity.

Sonic quickly shrugged it away. He had no means to personally contact the doctor himself. Emerald eyes blinked again, as he ran past trees, leaves, and greenery. The same forest he passed as a child.

 _The base._

Sonic steered himself around and paused in front of a large stone structure. A few buttons and stones were moved, than thus, suddenly revealing the cracking concrete and foundation. What once stood of its glory, was now a sentimental piece to loath about.

Vines wrapped in and between the cracks, curling up, leaves dangling lightly from the stems. Flowers bloomed, flourishing in from the ground to the creaks and groaning. The paint was faded, leaving only the somber gray, silver and white.

One red-buckled shoe stepped forward.

And another.

Another.

Another.

Again.

Running to find the room Eggman promised him to look into. His heart was screaming, pounding with nostalgia and sadness, the begging, seething, crying–

Why.

He could not find it.

The room the doctor promised that it would be in his well wishes to look like as if it was still new, even though he was several years advanced into the future with technology.

"Stupid fool," Sonic muttered bitterly, kicking a bolt. It tinkled and bounced across the large hallway.

The childish part of him was about to burst open.

Sonic so mature? He was the laughing stock for everyone, and he didn't care one bit.

But what now?

Sonic couldn't answer the question.

His blue quills sagged, to the soft and feathery touch he once let a hand run through. Spoiled rotten with treats, cherished in love and warmth. The shoes that prevented his feet to be scarred and injured while running at terrifyingly fast speeds. The gloves he adored, and washed, and asked Tails, to secretly make new ones in case they tore and were in-repairable.

The flash of a camera, his grin, his short-stubby self.

Then "he" changed.

The doctor kept him away, locked the demons away.

The doctor knew he would no longer be able to keep it away and mentally cripple himself.

Gerald was better than he was, but the caring scientist was already off in space to tend for his granddaughter. He would last longer than his grandson would. That was before Shadow came into existence _._

What a tragedy the Robotnik family succumbed to.

Everyone had gone insane.

Except for Maria. She was the caring, innocent one.

Night wrapped day into a dark ink, settling into the very bones of the blue hedgehog. Crickets chirped. The owl had its gaze over the forest. The grass swayed in the gentle breeze, the earth slowly cooling down with the sun, the star underneath the horizon. Shivering.

Sonic was unable to sleep. The base was home to him, and the doctor only. No place in the whole wide world could call it home. As much as the quiet, adolescent hedgehog treasured Tails, the little brother he is, on and on, he couldn't help but call back to the simple, old days that ran his heart dry. The hedgehog shut his eyes again, trying to overcome the tiredness of his mind and fall asleep. Dreams and gods that will take him away, again and again.

The doctor spoke so much of fantasies.

What the world's literature had to offer, as he reflected on his youth, traveling to different laboratories and spoke the great discoveries from those all around.

Even the media and TV shows humans were interested in.

"Primus loved all his children dearly..." the doctor rambled one day. Sonic was fiddling with a wrench on the table, his triangular ears pricked up, listening but distracted.

"But they are all mumbo jumbo and serve no purpose to me. Good job for the creators and writers though!" the doctor concluded and went back to sketching something in the many journals he owned. Videos into tapes which reminded Sonic, those tapes the hedgehog would find and grab his hands on.

Anything to re-live the old days all over.

 **. . .**

A beep snapped the dozing hedgehog awake from his uneasy rest.

Oh no.

Sonic quickly sat up and looked at his wrist. He forget the communicator was still there.

Shit.

It was too late to do anything about it though. Tails would have the coordinates and came to find him in this place. Sonic had to make it look suspicious. He dropped and smashed the communicator on the floor, and quickly zipped out of the base.

He heard the quiet hum of the Tornado pass by, landing on the ground. Sonic zoomed away, afraid what Tails might think of him if he finds his brother at Eggman's base. Sonic never wanted anyone to pry at the old wounds. He accepted his fate. The doctor accepted his fate. It was time to let go.

The blue hedgehog continued running, for hours, watching as the moon begin to sink its crescent bright self, to below and underneath the horizon. Dawn arrived, the sky smudged and airbrushed of blues, turning lighter and lighter. Yellow sparked from the northeast as it rose, like pen strokes flitting. Clouds gradually changed from a smoldering dark purple-grey, to casting the undertones of the sky and to white in purity.

His shoes pattered quietly on the grass, sprinkled of dew and water.

Sonic's mind suddenly flitted to the day. It was today when the doctor and a tiny hedgehog parted ways, until the later future.

* * *

"Doctor! Why can't I see you again?" a tiny blue hedgehog jumped on a young man's lap. His mustache was just growing by then, not quite the length he expected it to be. The doctor smiled, laced with sadness and sentiments all between.

The man held the blue hedgehog's gloved hand. He sighed. "It is something, with my mind. Something you won't understand yet, but if I see you one more time, no good things will happen to both of us."

"I can understand!" Stubborn as the small hedgehog was, he determined for answers, believing he could understand all of life's trials and answers.

"Sonic. You don't. You will understand when you are older." The doctor ruffled the hedgehog's soft quills. "I promise you will. I have built a room that one day, only you will enter and see all the times that we have spent together. You will even get to hear this ragged old voice too." he chuckled, coughing, and rubbed his temples.

The hedgehog knew he was firm and true to his word, so he decided to spend the rest of the day bothering the doctor, messing things up, and eventually, causing a lab to explode. Robotnik was amused, not even surprised at the ways Sonic was holding up now.

Robotnik felt...sad. No. Just unhappy. Watching the bubbling youth before his eyes.

He felt the monster inside him, ready to take over the last bit of his sanity left. Robotnik resisted. He would cause no harm, no trauma to the young hedgehog. The youth had a family, but they all believed he was missing and pronounced dead for years. The doctor sighed, cursing himself from the trouble he had gotten himself into.

Sonic is too young to remember anything significant, so the doctor let go of the chance of ever erasing his mind with a ray gun.

Dusk was falling. Sonic was ready about to pass out from exhaustion. Three years Robotnik had taken the young hedgehog under his wing after he found the youth all by himself in the forest, asleep. Three years he taught the hedgehog good manners and tactics to grow up by. Three years he had spoiled the hedgehog rotten, tending him with love and care powerful enough to sweep over the seas. The doctor knew he would be a fast fighter.

But that warm family love the two beings shared could not be replaced by family love. Robotnik cared. He never wanted the hedgehog to grow up like he did, as his parents raised and taught the Robotnik family.

"Sonic." he shook the sleepy hedgehog quietly. "Come on. It's time to bring you home."

Triangular eyes perked curiously, eyes blinking as he gazed up at his caretaker. "Home…?" the hedgehog asked softly. "I have a home. It's here...right?"

Oh, how the poor man's heart broke when he heard the hedgehog uttered those innocent words. He swaddled the hedgehog in blankets, knowing he isn't the young child he once was. Sonic had a world to go on without him, and he's just barely a few years old. He struggled to hold back the overwhelming emotions, threatening to spill, create a weeping wave for a weeping man who always wished for a family.

 _I could be locked away forever for just taking a child away from his family._

The doctor stuck a red pen in the blankets, with a small encrypted message. It would activate the room. Maybe it would still stand and function the way it usually is. Or it would override all system codes and shut down, allowing any crafty peeps to look into his personal history. It's no matter. Gerald would take care of the problem.

Robotnik walked a few miles, away from the base he called home. He tended to his gardens and the greenery, watched Sonic play and grow fond of the flowers that grew. He made blueprints and robots to help him with his duties, even watching Sonic when he was asleep at nights, and the doctor was still awake.

Nearby, a wooden cottage was alight with soft candles glowing from the windows. The doctor set Sonic down, he was asleep in his arms by then and knocked. Robotnik sprinted away as quickly as he can and watched a taller and older hedgehog step out of the cottage looking around. He peered down at the steps and noticed his son. His son who was alive, and asleep, cradling a red pen.

The wife came out and find her offspring too. They rejoiced, awakening Sonic, who cried with his parents too. His mind had already forgotten who Robotnik is. Who he spent with for the past three years.

The doctor watching in the shadows smiled, tugging at his tired lips, his mustache droopy, his eyes exhausted. He walked back home, listened to the quietness of the forest, watching his every step and move.

All the way back home.

His base.

And his mind failed to keep him up anymore.

 **. . .**

Eggman would question the hedgehog who was fighting him. Did he remember anything, when the doctor raised and took care of him? It was close to those days, when he uttered those lies, when his mind was succumbing to darkness and forever entrapping him within those chains. He couldn't tell between his demons and reality.

He was too focused on those green eyes who locked on his, before he was hit again on the side. Cursing silently, he swung and played with the controls, determined to capture and kill the hedgehog. A small part of him said:

 _ **No.**_

When the world turned red. Isn't that an expression, one and only? He saw nothing but his demise in every reflection and mirror. He left none that could be able to reflect back the man he once was. Over and over.

Of course. Sonic saw it as a game! Doctor Eggman assumed Shadow saw the interactions between them as what his thought was, but never got around the reason why and how. He hoped Gerald's hedgehog would never find the room. The room of his locked away memories.

After being blown away and into wherever he could escape to, he pulled out a small device. It was old and cracking at the edges. Upon opening the tiny locket he kept beside him all these years to remain sane, it was a small photo of him and the young hedgehog.

Oh how much Sonic had grown up now. He could never explain the color change in his pupils, even when he took the hedgehog in.

Explaining the locket to Metal Sonic was a whole different story. The robot was sneaky enough to go inside his room and take it from his desk while the doctor was asleep. The programming of Metal Sonic to kill and replace the organic Sonic was a tiny "accident". But he wouldn't go on full encore mode to destroy the hedgehog, would he? Another mistake from the doctor himself.

He was the one who cannot rest. He was the one who kept building plans to destroy the hedgehog so he can purge any sentimental nostalgia toward him. He was the one who is unable to let go, and every day, it would ever so get worse. He was the soul who chained himself to eternal purgatory. He wanted to die, but he can never escape the wrath of his demons that took his whole family away. The gods would never accept him.

He wanted to die, so he can end the eternal torture he watched himself fail over and over. And Eggman is pathetic because he would no do such thing to finish himself. So the doctor kept a red pen, the same red pen he gave to the young hedgehog all those years ago and held it close to him.

A red pen is a symbol. It means one is signing something for the last time because they are on the verge of their death.

Oh, he's lying at the pits and at his lowest.

A base so far away after his creation with Infinite. He wasn't in control and was no longer the owner of his body. Doctor Eggman tried to rest, closing his eyes beneath the spectacles and listened to the quiet hum of the machinery and the air conditioning in the background. The gears cranked, the robots mused before themselves, doing the tasks he programmed them to do.

"I'm very sorry, Infinite," he whispered quietly. His memories were a mess. When was the last time he wanted a family so badly? When wasn't the last time he never wanted to conquer the world for his own?

It's all pointless when the only person who prevented him from taking over the entire world was a mirror's reflection of who the young blue hedgehog is now.

* * *

Sonic was talking to a G.U.N. official about finding one of Eggman's bases. He gave them the coordinates, with Tails confirming. The fox was talking to the official, obviously immersing the soldier in.

Summer was the day when the doctor gave him back to his parents. His real ones. Not by some unhappy man who kidnapped him. The hum of the air conditioner in the open hangar, open space. Officials and scientists alike were talking, and collaborating, what to better improve their weapons, defense, and in with the government. A researcher overheard the President was going to visit their headquarters today, and everything must be at its best and tidy as it can be.

Yet.

Yet, the blue hedgehog wondered how his doctor was doing. He pondered if those mysterious glasses ever reflected the dimmed joy when those young hands first held a sleeping, injured baby.

He mused for hours, often lost in his own train of thought.

Sonic was never lost in his mind. He never questioned, he never thought, he jumped straight into action, the stubborn bastard he is.

His hand was drawing near his quills, as he took out the red pen that resided him, through time after time, through battles and the wars and ragged soldiers that stared dead into his eyes. One that begged for peace, and for the days when they didn't fight against the doctor.

Sonic always let him go free.

Eggman may have broken many federal laws and may have been sentenced to death if each time was caused by one faulty mistake that allowed the doctor to escape.

Sonic didn't care either way. All those transformations and journeys he was carried out to save the world, they do mean something right? Hell-bent moments in which he saw his childhood flash in his mind, and the red pen that signed the doctor's death.

A gloved hand offering peace, safety, and comfort, but the evil man only feared of hurting the one he saw as his own family. He was afraid he wasn't able to control his demons.

Sonic briefly heard the words "raid", "launch", "today". His heart twisted inside, but the blue hedgehog put the nostalgic hurt down. Eggman refused everything, he threw everything away.

Nobody saw the hero of Station Square as a bitter hedgehog who held a grudge in the past. Why would they? There is no need to return to the man who threw himself away to control himself.

Today, in the afternoon, he would watch Team Dark raid and burn down his early childhood and memories. There was no need to keep it on any longer.

A silent sigh, and he tucked the red pen back in his quills. He hoped Rouge wouldn't pry her fingers around looking for the hedgehog's past secrets.

Shadow stepped out with the bat and Omega from the corridor. He noticed Sonic standing a little bit away. The easy grin slipped on his face, like all those years, even when almost assassinated mercilessly. Have a little faith, dear ebony hedgehog.


	9. 009 - Swansong

_Suggestion by:_ _JoyoftheStorm_

 _The first part I thought of, when I arrived at this prompt again, would link pretty nicely back to your suggestion._

* * *

 **Post-Infinite War  
As Of Now: World Repaired  
** **Part 02 of** _ **Red Pen**_

 _A man so foolish, his end death was one of many._

"Agent Shadow. Have you arrived at Sector E3?" Omega hummed.

"Affirmative."

An ebony hedgehog dropped in from a vent on the ceiling. He was in Sector E3, with Rouge and Omega both confirming it should be a couple more feet away until he has arrived at his destination.

It isn't unlikely that these raids would happen. Team Sonic had officially confirmed Eggman may be hiding in another one of his bases. It was far out in a lush, forest, away from humanity, and especially the government. The mad doctor knows what to do, fleeing with a tail behind his legs.

The doctor knew everything in his power to get away. He and Sonic see it as a foolish, childish game for years, dodging and attacking each other. But since the Infinite War, Sonic has been taking him a little bit too seriously on the doctor, even going to as far for asking Tails to track him down to his current locations. Eggman never showed up on the radar. He had disappeared for years.

G.U.N. waited outside of the base. Some of the higher ranking generals carried in their small-fleet of soldiers, scanning for any relevant documents before breaking the hell out of there. The Commander in charge of the raid was prepared to blow up any remaining evidence Eggman would come back and attempt to settle it for one of his own in the latter days and weeks. Months.

His hover shoes clicked on the floor with a gentle tap. He sent a quiet message to Rouge he is exploring the storage room. A storage room, where the Sector is precisely at.

Cardboard boxes trialed on for miles, on metal shelves, creaking and groaning ever so slightly. A bold, blue glow emitted from the walls and the floor.

Shadow stood up and walked around. He admired the smoothness of the floor, the walls, creating a somewhat sci-fi aesthetic look. In fact, the storage room seemed particularly new, rather than old, according to the comms. from other soldiers. One mentioned there was a whole place wrapped in vines and greenery.

Such oddities from the doctor himself.

Peering into every box, there was nothing but dust. It seemed all cleared out. The cardboard was old and faded, peeling from the boxes itself. The soft hum of the blue light was the only sound Shadow heard.

"Nothing seems to be used in here for years." A general in Sector F45 spoke, static and a click quickly informing those who are up and around the base.

"Fifty years, I estimate."

What a coincidence.

There were a few murmurs and whispers _and_ coughs Shadow picked up, sensing the uneasiness and tension amongst the squads. Shadow the Hedgehog, all destruction of course.

He muted his com. link and went back to searching all the other boxes. Apparently, he stumbled by one with VHS tapes and journals. How old is the doctor anyway? Never mind. Shadow quietly dumped the box on the floor, spilling its contents. A photograph tumbled out. He picked up the frame. The photo was covered in dust, and he blew it off. His eyes nearly widened in surprise at the familiarity of an all-well known hedgehog before him.

A small, blue hedgehog, black pupils, with the ever famous grin, holding a bunch of flowers, posing for the camera. A round, circular, glass window suited the background since it was accompanied by the garden scenery. It seemed blurred, as perhaps the photographer had intentions to make it as artistic as possible.

The ebony hedgehog was intrigued. It swept over him.

He had about a couple minutes to spare, to search before it was time to leave the base.

A tape recorder caught his attention at the edge of his peripheral vision.

It was dated a couple of tens and years ago. Shadow pressed the button, to hear Eggman's voice over the recording.

"Hello." he began in a grave voice. "It has been…years since I have enjoyed company with you."

Shadow felt the need to throw the recorder across the room and never hear it again. But the younger Eggman never heard Shadow's silent pleas.

"I'm kind of surprised you have settled your hands on this. After all these years, eh? That photograph I kept, those VHS tapes when technology was sorely poor, and it's all I could record of our joyous times together. The journals you would scribble all over in while I tried to make a blueprint, a new design, everything. I'm not sure what would happen to future me. Gone insane? The fact I could never feel the way other people can, other human beings and mobians a-like. Gerald had a better chance than I did…"

The young doctor sighed at the other end. There were a few clanks here and there. A soft beep.

"I have always, saw you as a son. But it was wrong of me, to take you away from your...real family. I was incapable of having such warmth and care for a mobian like you.

"I am sorry...to have created much pain for you in the future. I am no longer mentally stable, as my mental health is sorrowfully declining. I deem this may be the last message of the former me. But at least you have picked up this box. I am no man, of showing such nostalgia and sentiments toward...what humans called these their treasure and the reminders of the happy past."

"Agent SHADOW." The Commander snapped over the muted com. link. The ebony hedgehog nearly flinched. Nearly. He knew the Commander could override any muted link. "Please evacuate the base, immediately, as the squad is ready to terminate it."

Shadow hurriedly shut off the tape recorder and shoved VHS tapes and journals inside. He Chaos Controlled it back to his bedroom to be looked into further, the moment he got home.

G.U.N. will not be getting their hands on this...sensitive information. They have no need to pry into Eggman's past life and suspiciously Sonic's. The photograph though…

Exiting the base, a duck, and roll, just as the explosions started. The base thundered and crashed, flames licking the sky, the smoke threatening to trap the earth with its notorious heating effects.

The ebony hedgehog watched from a few meters away, silent and calculating. He swore he saw a shard of glass and burnt pieces of cardboard in the air.

After meeting up with the Commander for a brief talk, he teleported away back to his home. Rouge and Omega didn't have the chance to catch up and talk to him. The bat shook her head and climbed inside the helicopter with Omega.

 **. . .**

It was evening by the time Shadow brought himself to look through the contents Setting the photograph aside, he sorted out the contents of the worn out box, by date and type. Having set up an old TV that still allowed the tapes to be played by inserting the cassette in. A small piece of paper, a code. It hadn't meant anything yet until he watched it. The journals, he would take a look at them later.

Plus, Shadow had a hedgehog to interrogate.

In an hour before midnight, Sonic would arrive at the apartment, receiving a message from Shadow. It took the ebony hedgehog every once to not strangle the blue musing.

The ebony hedgehog inserted the first tape into the cassette player.

"Is this on?" a voice murmured quietly. There was darkness. A couple taps and a pop, the lid fell to the ground. There was a shuffle and squeaking, as a young man dressed in casual clothing quickly stood in front of the camera, dusting himself off. He was nervous.

"Good day. My name is Ivo Robotnik. File A-001, I present you, a garden. This is probably the first...database I am doing. I...am probably following in Gerald Robotnik's footsteps. He's my older brother! And probably the one who is foremost talented in biology. Currently on this day, this is Gerald's first day in space with Maria Robotnik, his granddaughter. No reports or incidents on the Space Colony Ark so far."

"Doctor! What are you doing?"

A small blue hedgehog appeared on the screen, visibly popping out against all the greenery and flowers. Robotnik widened his eyes in horror. He quickly scrambled from his post and scooped up the hedgehog. "Now now is not the time to be here," he said, voice light with anxiety and anxiousness.

"Why is the red light blinking at me?" Round, black pupils settled on the lens of the camera.

"Oh dear," Robotnik rubbed his temples, clearly stressed. He put the hedgehog down. "I am recording something, something important."

Triangular ears flicked curiously, as the blue head bobbed back toward the doctor. "What's so important that I can't be in here? This is a camera, right? I wanna be in it!"

Robotnik sighed. He looked at the camera again. "This is, Sonic the Hedgehog. A Mobian who is capable of running up to the speed of sound, according to my own data and personal records. He is highly aqua-phobic and heavily dislikes closed spaces. Meet the world, Sonic."

The hedgehog grinned, his whole face lighting up. "Hi! It's so nice to meet you! I'm Sonic! I can run faster than any other animal on this earth!"

The man shuffled in the background. "Here, we have–"

Throughout the rest of the tape, the doctor forgot he was recording and was chasing around the blue insolence most of the time.

Finally, finally, he caught the blue hedgehog just as he slipped under the endangered ferns. He collapsed on the ground with Sonic buried deep in his chest, muffled whining and protesting to beg him free from this suffocation.

"You poor little mobian." Robotnik chuckled, rubbing the hedgehog's quills. He beamed at the doctor.

"I'm hungry."

"Of course." The man ran his hand over his hair. "I'll get you something after this."

"But I want to eat right now." Sonic pouted, his forehead creasing.

"Alright. Be right back. Sheesh, I forgot the camera was running. Please do not fiddle with it."

The blue hedgehog nodded, innocent like-features spreading across his face. The minute the doctor left, he smirked. He rummaged around, all over the garden, looking for anything suspicious or new. The frames suddenly shifted and moved, as Sonic was muttering incoherently about using the camera to explore things.

"Whoa. This is so cool!"

The camera shook slightly, from the trembling hedgehog's hands. "Doctor is going to be mad at me if I break this thing. So I'll be careful with it!"

The frames shifted back and forth, rolling to wherever Sonic was carrying it.

The blue hedgehog decided to put the camera down and let it face him. He opened his mouth and began to speak.

"I don't think Doctor would look through this again. Obviously, this was something failed, since I came in and messed it up for him." He was serious. A glint of serious-pretend innocence. "Just yesterday, I was looking through his journals, and it said something about a hedgehog named…'Shadow'. He was created before I was born. When I overheard the doctor say that Gerald had been on the ship with Maria for the first time, I think he was wrong. I'm not sure why he would lie to you. But it is just something to clarify!"

He smiled again. There was a glint of red next to him. The hedgehog noticed it too.

"Oh, what's this?" Sonic picked it up and squinted at the small silver writing. "072-051? What does this mean? Doctor must have dropped this." He put it down again.

Up and went the camera go. It suddenly blinked and died.

 _The octal numeral system._

It was the first thought that went through Shadow's head as the screen blinked out, and static replaced it. Hasn't technology used that in ages, since hexadecimal is more coming for computer programming these days.

He looked at the code on the piece of paper. It was identical to the one he saw on the screen. Shadow fished through his memories and programming as he tried to pull up a table of the octal numeral system and the corresponding characters that went with it. It would only be two letters…

The ebony hedgehog only had two characters, and he blinked in surprise.

There was nothing more. Shadow was perplexed, as he tried to reverse the code, with anything else. "Oh." The ebony hedgehog stopped in his tracks as he realized he didn't exactly have a red pen with him, consisting of silver writing. Robotnik has one...but the ebony hedgehog had a suspicious glance that Sonic may have one too.

His first theory was confirmed.

Sonic was raised by Doctor Eggman in his early childhood years. Shadow, by then had just been twenty years existing on the Ark. Before the whole incident happened and before he landed on earth and caused mayhem and destruction. But that was fifty years after. So when was Sonic born? How long have the two idiots been fighting at each other's throats? The ebony hedgehog shook his head, apparently lost. Sonic never seemed to age a single day!

It had to do with going back in time and saving Princess Elise? Time paradoxes, tackling space and time is a tricky subject most scientists are unable to wrap their heads around. Or perhaps when Blaze and Silver entered their world, their past, future and present.

Shadow ejected the tape from the cassette and sighed. It was labeled, "The First Recording". He looked at the other tapes, which were only numbers, signifying of Eggman's research. The ebony hedgehog had spent hours looking through them while at work and in secret, hoping for any sign about Sonic's past. There were two tapes left to watch. The second was dated a few months after the first one. Its designation? "Memory".

He inserted the tape into the cassette. While waiting for the TV to boot up, Shadow wondered why those were explicitly named by the first three numbers. Why not the other ones? Tapes labeled, going all the way up to a hundred and beyond. But why these three marked specifically in red ink?

There was a flash of blue, and blur blurs here and there. Sonic was running all around the place\ and Ivo was on the point of exploding from tiredness and stress. He was working on his documents before the youngling decided to make a whole mess by running around and ruin the entire laboratory. By accident, and unbeknownst to them, Sonic had turned on the camera which is resting on its tripod stand in one corner of the room.

"Sonic! I asked you to not run around here! This place could explode if you trip over–oh no no no no no!" Ivo leaped from his chair to catch a beaker. The blue hedgehog caught it before it fell to the ground.

"Sorry Doctor..." Sonic looked down in shame, at his bare feet, hands tucked behind his back, careful to avoid the two back quill spines. The doctor rubbed his temples stressfully. He looked back at his papers. Inks and pens were scattered everywhere. Sighing, he pulled out a journal from a drawer and quickly began stress doodling in it. Robots were cleaning up the mess, and Sonic was sorrowfully helping too, guilt etched in his facial features.

A piano sat in one corner of the room. Sonic picked up his head and noticed how dusty it was. He pulled a rag from his quills and began wiping it down, sneezing in between and wiping his nose with his bare hand. Once it was shiny and polished, not the dull, woody object it is, he lifted the lid. To his surprise, the keyboard was quite small.

The hedgehog once heard of Eggman playing such beautiful songs before. There would be the classical era, such as _Fur Elise_ and _Chopin_ _Études_. There would be originals the doctor would make up, humming a tune he declared "Robotnik's Anthem". Sonic laughed at the memory. He pressed on a white key. It made a neutral pitch. Another note, followed by banging random notes, incoherently into the atmosphere.

Ivo finally finished cleaning up his space, only to merely hear awful music coming from one corner of his room. He sighed again, thinking once again, Sonic had decided to invade through his personal belongings. Especially _his_ piano.

The doctor crept closer to his piano, carefully, without trying to disturb the hedgehog. Three knocks on the wood when he got close enough. Sonic flinched and looked around, a playful but innocent feature swept across his face.

"Move over Sonic." Ivo said. Sonic rarely aw him smile these days.

"You smiled!" the hedgehog squeaked.

"I did?" Amusement fluttered across the doctor's features. He looked at the piano and settled his fingers on the keyboard. Sonic looked at him curiously.

Ah, the cat jumped out of the bad did it not? Sonic was always curious in everything he did. He may have heard Ivo play the classical pieces and originals, but he never listened to the doctor play with such...passion.

There was a soft chord. Machinery seemed to stop rumbling its quiet hum. Robots stood frozen in their positions. Cubot was awoken from his peaceful recharge to hear the doctor play. Everyone besides Sonic was prepared. It had been so long since they heard Ivo play something so…

Emotional.

So sentimental, one would shiver and their heart would ache.

Fingers flew across the keyboard, rising in harmony, the melody a mess, as it transitioned from one song to another. It's like Ivo had never stopped playing after all. The left hand was in charge of settling the melody's outrageous cry from the right hand. The chorus rose in such tension, it left their voices shaking and brittle.

The music stopped. Pausing, hesitantly again, the master played the melody with such daring, dancing steps. And then he swept. Pouncing the chords as loud as he can. The right hand continued to dance, moving and delicately sweeping one octave after the next. He commanded the music, he remixed it to nothing like its original. The key in D Minor, it set such a throbbing tone.

The chords left his fingers, and Ivo was playing the melody with gentle pace. The harmony was beginning to back-pace itself, and the high notes gradually started to soar. The chords quickly moved across the keyboard, the melody demanding to be heard. She was the one who knew to sing the lyrics of the song.

Off-key notes hit the keyboard and it gradually moved back on course, the melody dancing off and away from the original song.

The room faded away into one of clouds, and settled for a classroom. An empty classroom with desks and chairs toppled over, and there sat a young boy, staring up at nothing. The blackboard spoke of terrible English, math equations with its accurate answers.

 _The lost one is weeping and he is crying for mercy!_

He kept preying, moving in and out, weaving from the original song to the remixed. And finally, it was to end on the last note and chord, the melody rising and rising to the highest pitches.

And it stopped.

Silence.

Dead silence.

It was deafening.

The machinery began its quiet hum. The robots resumed their work, and Cubot fell into another fitful recharge. His systems were designed to not work yet, only watching and listening is the best he can do.

Ivo took in a deep breath and sighed. His wrists hurt, especially his fingers and ring finger. It had been so long since he played it. Maria was such a talented little cousin she is. She was quite delicate with the piano and would play like there was no tomorrow.

From all the romantic melodies to the dramatic and epic orchestral ones, she loved playing the piano. Ivo would always thank himself for teaching the young prodigy how to play.

One day, maybe she would be able to return to Earth and play the piano for a special hedgehog.

The doctor finally realized Sonic was sitting next to him. His expression was confusing and unknown. In awe perhaps? Leaving the blue hedgehog to sort out his thoughts, Ivo went back to his desk and began to work on his report.

The quiet scritch-scratching of the pointed inks on the paper is anything the base heard all night.

The frames faded to nothing but darkness.

 _The camera must have r_ _u_ _n out of battery_.

Shadow ejected the tape in silence. Static filled the TV screen. Maria had never spoken to him about her...talents. She was always there, the like of butterfly innocence. Even hanging around with the wretched Commander. In a way, the tape touched the ebony hedgehog more than he thought it would. Maria used to hum all the wondrous of songs all the time, and her hands would move across air.

The digital clock sitting on top of his dresser read a half hour before eleven.

The ebony hedgehog heard movement downstairs. Rouge was home. Finally, after the long hours of whatever she is doing for G.U.N. and now to work again at her club. How many nights have Rouge managed to stay up without passing out? A week. It's already putting a strain on her body. Shadow reflected he was still alright after a month, but the thought of resting and putting his mind at ease was unsettling.

Well, Shadow could pass off as a workaholic.

Nothing left to watch, but journals. A code resembling a smiley face, a haunting one.

The journals lay there on the floor, watching him. The hedgehog snatched one from the pile and opened up to the first page.

Scribbles and letters. Incoherent phrases.

All those journals Sonic may have peeked through once in a while, were now in his possession. Of course, a few of the pages resembled the blue hedgehog's creativity. Lost and sucked into a vortex of craving for more information.

Most of the journals contained scientific reports for the doctor's own research own biological compounds.

There was a beginning and there was an end. Robotnik continued journaling his life, prying away from his research and into the depths of researching mental health. There was something wrong with him, yet even the most advanced of technology and medical professions were not able to figure out. There came the little curiosity, after sending Sonic away, that maybe inflicting harm on others would do the trick. He sent letters to the unknown and dead. Even so, after disappearing for so many years, he came back to terrorize the people of Mobius.

Each and everyday were begged and filled of mercy and forgiveness to an unknown person. Like static wrapping around and around.

Shadow was rudely interrupted by a door crashing into his room. The ebony hedgehog knew it was not even worth to try hiding the scattered contents over the floor, as it would be deem worthless for Sonic's visit.

If eyes could harden and chip away like ice, it would be the blue hedgehog's expression at the moment. He noticed the photograph, the worn-old journals, and those _tapes_ happened to be brought into existence again.

"Shadow..."

Sonic's face was a colorful palette of shock, sadness. Horror.

There were incomprehensible shouts, and a punch cracking through Shadow's plaster wall, but even through all the anger the blue hedgehog wanted to release, he felt a decaying sadness rise up and capture him again.

A red pen fell from Sonic's quills. Matching the code, and everything the hedgehog was looking for. He didn't understand why he wasn't able to find the room. Sonic promised, and he did. Through the darkness of that night, he wasn't able to touch its cool surface and smooth over the leather-bound cover of the journals. Watch the tapes, watch his childhood flash through his eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner!"

Shadow's face reflected nothing but a quiet stoic.

"Why didn't you tell me!"

The blue hedgehog was distressed.

"Why?!"

He continued to shake the dark hedgehog for answers. Nothing. No reaction. Sonic stormed out of the apartment faster than Shadow anticipated. Maybe he would have stayed. Maybe looked over its contents and watch them all over again.

The small child inside Shadow mourned. Just like him. Mourning for his friend's loss.

The Sonic who stormed out of his room was riddled with grief.

Family is what they are missing.

Dr. Eggman finally revealed his ugly head by launching an attack on Station Square. He was the same doctor who's mind have been conquered by madness and the dream to take over the world.

An err...surprisingly larger robot than the last, trampled the city grounds. Sonic's heated glare was felt by everyone. Tails looked at him, concerned weaving its way on his face, and contemplated later to talk to him. Not once, had Team Sonic felt this much hatred radiation from the rag-tag uncaring blue hedgehog.

He was seething.

Seething like Shadow when someone mentioned _that_ name and potentially caused an apocalypse if uttered such word. Nobody knows why. Nobody understands. Nobody cared because it would be pointless to bring it up.

Of course no one knew of such a game between Eggman and Sonic. Past is gone. With that, Team Sonic and Team Dark launched a full on assault toward Eggman.

Hmm, Shadow expected Sonic to pull out his red pen, pop off the cap, twirl around like a magical girl and let a slather of ink drench Eggman in his guiltiness and tears. No matter.

Frontal assault. Bullets whizzed by, too close for the ebony hedgehog's own comfort.

Team Sonic and Team Dark were slammed one wave after another with robots. Tiny little capsules sprung in the air and exploded, smoke drenching the entire area. Innocent civilians were quickly evacuated and stayed with their further relatives until the destruction is over.

Shouts and commands erupted over Team Dark's comm. links.

"Where's Sonic?!"

They lost him through all the fire and the thick gray.

Nobody knew where the hedgehog and Eggman went.

Missiles were launched from aerial support, targeting the more beefier robots on the ground and were not manually controlled by Eggman himself.

"Move back. Do a one eighty three hundred hours! Squad G1 hit the hardest! Bring back-up, go, go now!" The General snapped, his voice quickly silenced by static.

Out of the midst, Shadow caught Eggman and Sonic in a tight deadlock.

The doctor had the blue hedgehog in a crushing grip, threatening to pop his head off without a problem. In the distance away from the destruction, a sniper caught onto Shadow's frantic look. The ebony hedgehog was zipping over to his comrade as quickly as he can, throwing a robot aside and shoeing it into a tree.

The sniper tossed his Bolt Action aside and reached for a missile launcher. Even after years and years of training, his eyesight was acute and dead onto the robot's mainframe, where Eggman was held inside.

"General, I have caught sight of Eggman. Point blank." the man spoke quietly, and pulled the trigger.

Time seemed to slow as the weapon traveled its way toward Eggman's mainframe. Sonic was struggling, and heard the whistle of the missile. Still blinded from his fury and grief, the blue hedgehog failed to notice it was a dead hit toward Eggman. He continued to struggle, screaming all the colorful names and curses in the book to which most of the fans thought he was just holding in his temper and keeping his look.

Shadow noticed the missile too. He sharply focused on the struggling hedgehog in Eggman's grip as the robot came into view and the trees opened up for all the gray sky war zone it would be.

It was too late to gather the hedgehog and chaos control to a safer area.

An explosion rocked the entire earth to its core.

Silence stilled the heavy battles still raging on. Gunshots and blaze galore slowly began to die off, as soldiers and robots turned to look at the sight.

Shadow was blown backwards. The ebony hedgehog felt himself collide with a tree trunk. He struggled to stand up, dizziness overtaking his vision and his mind.

Sonic was thrown into the sky, gravity quickly pulling onto his body and threatening to shatter his bones once he hit the ground. Rouge captured the blue hedgehog just as he was about to hit the ground.

Bits of molten metal laid on the ground. As the blue hedgehog began to recover, his eyes widened in horror, realizing what had happened. Looking back at the mass of melted metal, he struggled to stand up, dashing toward what was once Eggman's robot.

"Please be alive, please be alive." the hedgehog mumbled incoherently. Rouge was told to restrain Sonic but to no avail, as he threatened the bat he would personally burn her possessions to the ground.

A hoarse cough came from the metal pile. Shadow helped the blue hedgehog, quickly digging out the pile. Underneath lay the doctor himself. His glasses were broken, part of his face was matted in blood, and the lower torso and below his body were still covered in large plates of molted metal. He coughed, struggling to look through his blurry vision, focusing on a particular blue and dark ebony.

"Sonic..." Eggman whispered hoarsely, continuing to cough up blood.

"Doctor, please I can't afford to lose you too." Sonic shook the frail man. His facial expressions were a mixture of worry and fear, no longer the anger Eggman saw when he was fighting him. He relaxed against the cold, prodding metal. His burial ground.

Never had the doctor thought his death would be to a sniper.

He had failed and broke his promise to the youth who raised the tiny hedgehog.

Sonic and Shadow were the physical description of a bloody mess covered in scratches and wounds. Eggman had expected to hold both of Gerald's creation and his "kidnapped", on a much more gentle scale after one of them discovered the locked up truth.

His stupid mind was unbearable to launch another attack after disappearing for the past few months. He sighed, looking at the blue sky clearing the smoke.

"Robotnik?" Sonic asked worriedly.

"I believe...this is my demise. Not how I thought it should end this way either." the old doctor chuckled. "I'm getting too old for this. Maria would be glad to see me...would she?"

Sonic looked at him as if he was nuts. "No! You can't die! Not yet...not yet...not after I just found out. The bastard Shadow found the journals when I wasn't able to. I'll get you to a hospital, someone will be able to fix you up, and it will be back to the old days right?"

Doctor Robotnik smiled weakly. A red pen similar to Sonic's fell from the sky, almost cracking. "Take this. It is what you wanted...right? A man so foolish he lost himself in his own twisted delusions. But at least..." His breathing grew shallower and shallower. The doctor took his last breath. A ringing.

Shadow still didn't understand that day. He was suddenly holding the blue hedgehog back from causing even more of a destruction. Apparently, Dr. Robotnik's wounds were too fatal. His lower half of his body was too crushed and broken, and the wounds inflicted from metal shards were deep and poking all over the clothing and skin. The day was a blur, there were people comforting, and the silence of Sonic's home the blue hedgehog and Tails shared.

The fox and the hedgehog talked a few times together, supporting Sonic all the way. Shadow returned all the contents he looked through to Sonic. Nothing was said and exchanged between the two of them.

Eventually, two weeks flew by.

Shadow decided to check on the blue hedgehog after work. Everything seemed normal and ordinary. The world was without an evil doctor terrorizing the innocent. It seemed relaxing at almost. Just before knocking on the said named home, he saw Sonic on the roof, clinking with two red pens together. The ebony hedgehog chaos controlled himself, and landed with a soft tap on the tiles.

A quiet conversation floated between the mourning.


End file.
